New Life as Uzumaki Naruto, Fox-friend
by Mistress Peverell
Summary: A 14 year old crossdresser is reborn as Naruto Uzumaki. Bedridden for most of his life, he won't allow anything or anyone to stop him from enjoying his new life. Not prejudiced Konoha citizens, old cripples, mercenaries hunting his tenant, weird plant hybrids or insane goddesses. He'll survive them all and start living. Warning: Crossdresser Naruto, eventual yaoi. Irregular Updates
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: New Life & Meeting Kyubi**

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, it belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. I'm not gaining profit from this.

This chapter isn't betaed, any mistakes are my own and English is definitely not my first language. Constructive criticism is much appreciated, flames are not.

_Naruto's thoughts_

**Emphasis**

WRITING

_Naruto talking to Kurama_

**Kurama talking to Naruto **

* * *

He wasn't hurting. Pain had been his constant companion since he could remember. Nothing hurt now. He opened his eyes, expecting… he didn't know what he expected to see. Pearly white gates and cherubs? Definitely not a dirty grey ceiling with thin cracks in it. He sat up in the small bed and looked around. His bed was pushed up against the wall with a window to his left, a bedside table on his right with an alarm clock on top and a door beside it. A small kitchenette was located against the right wall caught between another door. He assumed one led outside and the other to the bathroom. The kitchenette had a fridge pushed against the corner, a sink beneath a cupboard and stove beside it beneath two cupboards. A small table with two chairs was placed in front of the kitchenette. A wardrobe stood against the wall in front of the bed, a small bookshelf to its right. A light was hanging from a cable on the ceiling. The floor was covered in empty ramen cups and dirty clothes. Bright orange clothes.

It felt somewhat familiar, like he lived here, but it definitely wasn't his room. His room was white and smelled of antiseptic. There was always an IV and all kinds of monitors attached to him, his daytime or night time nurse were always present. He was alone in this apartment and there was no medical equipment to be seen. He wasn't hurting. _I'm dead. There's no other explanation._

He got out from under the covers and put his feet on the ground. He stood there for a moment, relishing in the cold he could feel through the soles of his feet. Then he stood, amazed he could. His muscles weren't shaking, his legs weren't having trouble holding him. Slowly, hesitantly, he walked toward the door beside the closet and opened it. It led to the landing of the apartment building. He closed it and headed towards the door beside the kitchen.

The bathroom was small, with a shower stall, a towel hanger, a toilet, a washing machine/ dryer combo near the toilet and a sink below a mirror. He opened the mirror and saw a toothbrush, toothpaste, and spare toilet paper. He did the toilet, _no catheter needed!_ Washed his hands, _that's new, I don't remember having bronze skin_. Only after his hands were dry did he look at the image in the mirror: blue eyes, blond hair and three whisker marks on his cheeks. _Am I dreaming?_ He pinched himself just to be sure, it hurt. _Not dreaming then. Is this the afterlife then? If so, THANK YOU GOD! I'm not sick anymore, I'm in the body of my favorite character, I can move like normal kids if not better and I share my body with a fuzzball that can heal anything! I'll never be that ill again and I can finally go outside!_

He twirled outside the bathroom while squealing like a fangirl. He had an ecstatic smile on his face and his eyes were shining. It took awhile for him to calm down. _Naruto, I'm Uzumaki Naruto now. _But once he did, he sat on the bed and breathed deeply, he had plans to make. _I need to know when I am, but how…_ he looked around again and saw a calendar above his bed, past days where crossed off. It was Saturday 26th of April, the word GRADUATION was written on Saturday, June 29. _I have two months to learn how to be a ninja… wait… do I have just Naruto's body or his memories too? _He pulled his legs up to sit crossed leg on the bed and closed his eyes.

Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.

Slowly, memories started coming. They were vague, indistinct, like the world through the morning fog outside his window. _Skipping school with Shikamaru, Kiba and Choji. Asking Sakura out and getting hit. Sparring against Sasuke at the Academy… why always him? Shouldn't the worst students get paired together? _

More memories surfaced. _The teachers taught him different taijutsu and throwing stances, they kicked him out of class for no reason, the vendors sold him overpriced goods, the civilians glared and called him 'demon'… No wonder the Original Naruto was messed up. He gave up on learning because the teachers were biased, when Iruka started teaching two years ago the damage was done. He'd given up, the pranks weren't just to attract attention, but to get revenge the only way he could. _

He opened his bedside drawer and took a pen and paper out of it before closing it. He crossed out today's date from the calendar and checked the time on the alarm clock: 9 a.m. Naruto knew he had to plan, but he was no strategist so making a detailed one was out of the question. He drew a line down the middle of the paper to form two columns, on the left one he wrote SHORT-TERM in Sindarin, on the right LONG-TERM in Khuzdul. Yes, he was a nerd, but to be fair, he was stuck in bed 24/7 with nothing to do. Learning fantasy languages was a way to pass the time before his inevitable death. The doctors were surprised he even reached 14.

He decided to deal with his long-term objectives first, they would be easier to come up with than the short-term ones. First, did he want to be Hokage? He wasn't sure.

LONG-TERM:

1\. BECOME HOKAGE?

2\. BECOME AN S-RANK NINJA

3\. LEARN FUINJUTSU

_No way am I letting Kurama rot inside me, I know how it feels to be trapped. I read a couple of fanfictions where Naruto found out how to give him a human or fox body without freeing him and dying. I'm going to figure out how to do it and Fuinjutsu is the way to go. Plus, it's cool._

4\. STOP SASUKE'S DEFECTION?

_I don't really know him, but if we become friends, I don't want him to leave, kill his brother and go insane. But if I stop him the timeline will change… not that it matters, I might sort-of have his memories but I'm not the Original Naruto so screw the timeline! _He crossed out the question mark and moved on.

5\. KILL DANZO

6\. SAVE KISAME, IF POSSIBLE

7\. SAVE ITACHI, IF POSSIBLE

Kisame was one of his favorite characters, so he'd try and save him. Itachi wasn't, he put the village before his family and allowed himself to get backed into a corner by Danzo-teme. However, Sasuke went even more crazy after his brother's death, so saving him was a must. If Sasuke didn't want to kill him even after knowing the truth. If he did, well… sayonara, Itachi. Without being overwhelmed by all the revelations and the guilt from killing his 'innocent' brother, he doubted very much that Sasuke would forgive him that easily, following orders or not. Naruto sort-of knew his rival, he wasn't the forgiving type. Though he did have a weakness a mile wide for his big brother, even now that he hated him, so who really knew.

8\. GET A DIFFERENT SUMMONING SCROLL

Summoning was cool, but toads were not. He wanted cats, or any type of feline. Or foxes. Something cute and deadly, not slimy toads.

9\. LEARN WIND AND WATER JUTSU

Wind was weak against fire and water beats fire. Plus mixing them would make a deadly combination even if Ice Release was impossible without a bloodline limit. _Too bad. Wait, do I even have a Water affinity? … Who cares, Kakashi learnt to use all the elements, I can learn two._

10\. DEFEAT AKATSUKI

11\. DEFEAT ZETSU

12\. DEFEAT TOBI

13\. DEFEAT MADARA

14\. DEFEAT KAGUYA

He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, overwhelmed by the enormity of his task. He abandoned the pen and paper on the bed and went to the kitchen to eat breakfast. He was unsurprised to find only water and milk in the fridge and cupped ramen and cereal in the cupboards. They were the only things he could afford with the overpriced goods in the market. He grabbed a bowl, filled it with milk, after checking the expiration date, it was good, and smothered it in cereals. It took four bowls before he felt full.

After breakfast, he washed his teeth and took a shower, the water took ages to warm up and the pressure was shitty. He wrapped a towel around his waist and walked towards his wardrobe. Orange jumpsuits filled it, he liked orange, especially now that it went with his coloring, but there was no way he'd wear neon orange. Burnt orange maybe, neon no. He rifled through the back of the closet until he found a short sleeved white shirt with a dark orange Uzumaki swirl on the back and blue cargo shorts Iruka had gifted him. He grabbed a pair of black briefs, put everything on and sat back on the bed to complete his list.

SHORT-TERM:

1\. LEARN KANJI

Turns out, the reason why Naruto was the dead last had nothing to do with pranking and skipping school and everything to do with biased teachers. The Original started the Academy early at 6 years old thanks to Hokage-jiji's recommendation, he paid attention at first but Tsubasa-sensei kicked him out with any excuse. Because of that he never learned how to read nor write properly, tests were a problem and so was homework. To top it off, Mizuki-teme was the TA for Tsubasa-sensei too and he taught him the wrong stances. The Original had noticed but there was no way for him to learn the right ones on his own, not when the librarian didn't let him inside Konoha's Public Library. The Original started skipping school once he realized there was no way he'd learn anything in school, he just went often enough to avoid being expelled. Iruka-sensei was the only one who cared, but it was too little too late. That and Original had too much pride to admit he couldn't read nor write properly. Naruto was disappointed that Iruka hadn't noticed, but at least Mizuki-teme had stopped sabotaging him, not that he needed to, Original's dead last status was assured.

2\. LEARN ACADEMY TAIJUTSU

3\. LEARN TREE WALKING AND WATER WALKING

4\. LEARN HISTORY, SHINOBI RULES, ETC.

He had to talk to Iruka-sensei, explain the situation and get his help.

5\. GET BETTER FOOD

6\. LEARN HOW TO COOK

This too, needed Iruka's help. Maybe he could convince him to buy groceries for him, with his money from the Hokage's stipend of course.

7\. MAKE STRONGER BONDS WITH TEAM 7 THAN IN CANON

8\. SURVIVE THE WAVE MISSION

9\. SURVIVE THE CHUNIN EXAMS

10\. SURVIVE THE INVASION

11\. STOP GAARA

12\. STOP SASUKE GETTING THE CURSE MARK?

There was an idea brewing in his head. Could kawarimi be used with people? If so, could he use it in battle? He needed to find out. Substituting himself with Sasuke right before Orochimaru bit him likely meant getting the Mark himself. In theory, the pedophile could only place the Mark once in a short amount of time, so he wouldn't be able to give it to Sasuke too. After the preliminaries Sasuke would be safe training with Kakashi and he'd be safe from any retaliation with Jiraiya. After the invasion, Orochimaru would lose the use of his arms and then he'd have to switch bodies, so no time to bite Sasuke.

However, he didn't really know Sasuke, and even if they did become friends, he refused to be marked permanently. One seal was enough. He had to speak with Kurama, the old fox might know a way to get rid of the Mark. Maybe use his corrosive chakra to burn it away somehow? If not, Sasuke would just have to deal with the Cursed Hickey.

13\. TALK TO KURAMA

14\. BECOME CHUNIN DURING THE EXAMS, IF POSSIBLE

He hesitated after that, there was one thing he had to know, but he was scared. The nurses never judged, neither did his sister, his mother was rarely there, but his dad looked so disgusted… not that he cared what that asshole thought. But if Iruka-sensei hated him… he'd have no one. Hokage-jiji was always so busy and while Teuchi and Ayame were nice they weren't really close. Iruka was like a brother to him. He didn't want to lose one of his precious people. _Damn, Original's feelings are strong. Although… they're not just his feelings, they're mine too, kind of. _He took a deep breath, gathered all his courage and determination and wrote it down.

15\. IS HOMOSEXUALITY ACCEPTED IN KONOHA?

16\. LET HAIR GROW OUT. FIND OUT IF JUTSU CAN SPEED IT UP

17\. BUY NEW …

He stopped for a second but soldiered on.

17\. BUY NEW FEMALE CLOTHES

He wasn't transsexual, he just liked wearing dresses and girly things most of the time. He loved feeling pretty and crossdressing did that. Pampering himself, putting on makeup, nail polish, pretty clothes and accessories was almost a ritual for him. It calmed him, made him feel safe and helped him deal with the reality of his approaching death. Like an armour. He'd never left his room since he was 4 years old, he never had to confront other people's opinions of him, he didn't know how he'd react to being bullied, but he refused to not be himself. Even if he was terrified.

18\. BUY BETTER TOILETRIES

19\. BUY BETTER SHINOBI EQUIPMENT

Konoha's civilians must really want him dead: first they sold him only a neon orange jumpsuit, then faulty shuriken and kunai plus moldy or overpriced food that stunted his growth. Naruto did love ramen, but he ate it all the time because it was cheap and Ichiraku's was the only restaurant willing to serve him. That and the shop where he bought his prank devices, he was pretty sure that the old woman knew, or at least suspected, he was Kushina's son. He'd heard her mutter her name once, the Original may not have known its significance but he did.

He looked at the clock, to see it was lunchtime already. He grabbed both lists, folded them up, opened the back of the alarm clock and hid them inside. After checking to make sure everything still worked properly, it did, he headed towards the kitchen to make himself some ramen. Three bowls later, he washed his teeth, put on the blue shinobi sandals Original left by the door the night before and locked the door on his way out. It wouldn't stop a ninja, but it should stop a civilian.

Though it had been years since they last ransacked his apartment, the Inu-masked ANBU had thoroughly warned them off doing it again. He now suspected it to have been Kakashi but had no way of confirming it because their hair was covered by a black hood, unlike in the anime and manga. Either way, Inu, Neko, Hawk and Tora were his favorites and most protective guards. Well, former guards, ANBU had stopped following him since he was 8 years old and had 'officially' started the Academy. He knew this for sure because Original stopped sensing their chakra around then.

This was another thing he had to bring up to Iruka, Original might think it was normal, but he knew that hearing as well as he did, sensing chakra, seeing in the dark and smelling what he did wasn't normal. He could smell lies, for fucks sake! Well, not exactly, he could smell guilt which meant he could tell if they lied or were hiding something only if they felt guilty about it. Wouldn't work on crazies or undercover agents. Bottom line, his senses were better than normal.

_I can use this. Original never really wanted to know why everyone hated him. He wasn't stupid, he heard them calling him 'demon' behind his back and knew exactly what had happened on his birthday. Jinchuuriki was not amongst his theories but he was scared of knowing. He asked, knowing no one would answer. If I ask Iruka if I'm Kyuubi's kid or reincarnation, looking all innocent and terrified, I'm sure he could get Jiji to spill the beans early. Maybe I can also get him to tell me about my parents if I tell him I knew he lied when he said he didn't know them. The guilt was pouring off him more than usual._

Jiji always smelt guilty, whether it came from being Hokage or just from talking to him he didn't know. It was kind of sad either way.

He got outside his apartment building near the outskirts of the Red-Light District. Surprisingly, it was the safest place for him, the prostitutes and druggies mostly ignored him. Some even watched out for him sometimes, it was the 'good' people of Konoha who gave him the most trouble. He shook his head to stop wool gathering and jumped. He easily reached the roof of the building beside the complex, _chakra is AWESOME! _He started jumping across rooftops at high speed. He felt weightless, like he was about to take flight any moment. He laughed happily, dizzy with exhilaration. _I love this life! _

He reached Iruka's house and jumped back to street level. People glared at him as soon as they saw him, but he easily ignored them. He was a boy on a mission. He entered the apartment building, climbed the stairs till the second floor and knocked on the first door on the right. Iruka opened the door at the second knock.

"Naruto! What are you doing here?" the scarred Chunin was smiling.

"Uhm," Naruto fidgeted, unsure how to proceed, "can I come in? I have something to tell you."

"Sure, sure," the man let him and closed the door behind him, "sit down Naruto." Naruto sat down on the couch, Iruka headed towards the kitchen. "Want anything?"

"Do you have juice?" Naruto was blushing, this was awkward.

"Orange?"

"Yes, please."

Iruka brought back an empty glass, a jug of orange juice and green tea mug for himself.

"So, what did you need? It's not for a prank, right?" Iruka sounded chiding when he said that.

Naruto could feel his metaphorical hackles rise, Original never asked anyone for help with pranks, not even Kiba. Those were all him and he was proud of it.

"No, that's not it." Naruto took a deep breath and asked, "I need you to let me talk and just listen, can you do that Iruka-sensei?" He waited for the teacher to nod before starting. "The majority of the village hates me. They always did." Iruka opened his mouth to say something but Naruto raised his hand and stopped him. "No talking. I need to say this."

After seeing that Iruka would remain silent he continued. "I was enrolled at the Academy early on Hokage-jiji's recommendation. At first, I was super excited, I was going to be a ninja and make friends! But my classmates bullied me and the teachers did nothing to stop them. Not only that, they sabotaged me. Tsubasa-sensei sent me out of class for no reason and Mizuki-sensei taught me the wrong stances."

Naruto could see Iruka gearing up for a lecture so he raised his hand again and kept talking, "Yes they did. I didn't start pranking until after I realized that the Academy wasn't any different from the orphanage. They treated me like a monster, like a demon." Iruka looked shocked from the amount of venom he put in that one word.

"I know Mizuki is your friend sensei, but he hates me. I know he teaches me the wrong things, I saw him correcting a girl and turn around and tell me to do the mistake he berated her for. I can't learn taijutsu or weapon throwing on my own, I have no examples to follow because he keeps me away from the others during practice so I can't see them clearly and the librarian doesn't let me in so I can't study from scrolls." Naruto could feel tears in his eyes so he blinked rapidly to get rid of them.

Iruka looked indignant, he believed him.

"I..." Naruto was blushing, this was the embarrassing part. It wasn't his fault, but he still felt ashamed. Iruka gestured for him to keep going, so he did. "I can't read," Iruka gaped, shocked, "well, I can, but not well, I can only read some kanji, writing is also a problem. No one ever taught me outside the Academy and Tsubasa-sensei… well. Can you teach me?"

Iruka took a moment to calm down, then he stood up and sat by Naruto and hugged him tightly to his chest. Naruto awkwardly tried to reciprocate the hug but he didn't know where to put his hands, he decided to let them hang limply by his sides instead.

"Naruto," Iruka's voice sounded choked, Naruto could smell his tears and guilt. Why he felt guilty he didn't know. "I'm sorry, I was your teacher for two years and I never realized… I failed you Naruto. I'm sorry."

Naruto could feel tears fall down his own cheeks, no one had ever apologized for how they treated him. No one had ever hugged the Original like this. Himself, he didn't remember the last time anyone hugged him. He was used to cold, clinical touches from the nurses or the occasional hand holding from his little sister. His father never came inside his room, his mother only when drunk and she always cried. His sickness was genetic and came from her side of the family, he knew she blamed herself for it even though it was no one's fault.

"Naruto," Naruto startled, he'd almost forgotten where he was. He raised his head to look the Chunin in the eyes, Iruka smiled lovingly down at him and said "I'll teach you. Not just kanji, I'll teach you everything you need to know to be a ninja."

Naruto smiled, "Cooking too?"

Iruka laughed, surprised, "Yeah, cooking too."

They sat like that for a while, until Naruto suddenly remembered his list, there was more he had to ask Iruka, but he wasn't sure now was the time. He decided to shelve his question about ninja sexuality and think of groceries.

"Iruka-sensei?"

"Yes Naruto?"

"You know how I said that the civilians sell me overpriced or rotten groceries?"

"What?!" Iruka grabbed his shoulders and pushed him away slightly to look into his eyes. He looked angry, angrier than Naruto had ever seen him. Naruto flinched, surprised by the sudden movement. Iruka's entire face relaxed and the hold on his shoulders softened. "Naruto, you never said that."

He blinked, surprised. Thinking back, he really hadn't said that, he'd just talked about the Academy. "Sorry sensei."

"Don't apologize. What's this about overpriced goods?"

"The civilians hate me. I'm not allowed in most restaurants. The ones that let me in sell me weird tasting food, it smells different from other people's food and makes me sick." Naruto now suspected poison, from the horrified look on Iruka's face he was thinking the same thing.

"The old man at the grocery store sells me rotten fruit and meat and everything he sells me costs twice as much as other people's he said it was an orphan tax…" Original always thought it was a hoax, Iruka shaking his head and telling him it didn't exist merely confirmed it.

"I love ramen, but I buy so much of it because it's cheap and I'm always hungry. I need three to four bowls before I'm satisfied. Anyway, that's not why I started this conversation, Iruka-sensei, can you buy me groceries?" Naruto stopped to let Iruka answer but he realized what he'd said and hurried to correct himself, "I don't want you to buy them! Well… no, I do want you to buy them because they won't overprice you, but I meant buying them with my money."

Iruka waited a moment to see if he had anything else to add. When he saw he was done, he answered, "Of course I'll buy them for you. I'll pay" Naruto started to protest but Iruka covered his mouth with his hand and kept talking, "I'm an adult with a regular paycheck. I can afford it, you have no source of income other than the orphan stipend, right?" Naruto couldn't talk, so he nodded. "So, I'll pay. What about your jumpsuits?"

Naruto was confused by the question and tried to ask what he meant. Iruka realized his hand was still over the kid's mouth, he sheepishly removed it. Naruto giggled at his blushing teacher, "What do you mean sensei?"

"Did you buy that jumpsuit because it was cheap?"

"No," Iruka looked relieved, by what he didn't know, "it was the only clothes they'd sell me." And there goes Iruka's relief. The man must have noticed his confusion, but chose to ignore his unasked question, _not that it matters. He likely thinks they sold me the jumpsuit hoping an enemy ninja would kill me in the field. Best not tell him they sold me faulty equipment too. _

"We should go shopping, then. Tomorrow is Sunday, so I'll come by your house at 10 a.m. with groceries and help you cook breakfast. After that, we can go shopping for clothes and shinobi equipment," he looked pointedly at him while saying this. Naruto rubbed the back of his head while laughing sheepishly. _Damn, he figured it out._

Iruka just sighed and continued, "Once that's done, I'll teach you to read and write. Starting next week, I'll come by every day at 6 p.m. to help you with dinner and keep teaching you. I know I said I'd teach you taijutsu but I think it's best if I just find you a teacher for that. I won't have time to teach you everything after school, so I'll teach you kanji, chakra control and the other Academy basics. I assume you'll start paying attention and stop skipping class?"

Naruto nodded and Iruka harrumphed, satisfied by his answer. Iruka threw away the now cold tea and they sat quietly drinking the abandoned orange juice. Iruka then gently ushered him out the door, he looked like he was gearing up for the mother of all lectures. Naruto was just glad he wasn't the recipient this time. _Hope the old man suffers, I know he was following my stupid dad's wishes, but who the hell is naïve enough to think they wouldn't mistreat me? As far as they know, Kushina, a grown woman and a Jōnin, either couldn't control Kurama or unleashed him on Konoha. Then they're told a baby is his new container and they should trust the seal will hold. A Jōnin couldn't keep it in, how can a baby? _Naruto could only shake his head before such idiocy. He understood where the civilians and some shinobi were coming from, but just because he understood didn't mean he liked it.

Naruto left and roof jumped to his apartment complex. Once he got back to home it was 4 p.m., he looked around at his dirty apartment and sighed. He had a lot of work to do. He went to the kitchenette, washed and dried the dishes he'd left in the sink. He opened the two overhead cupboards to check the contents. One held the cereal he ate that morning, the other one held the cooking utensils and dishes. He placed the now clean dishes back inside the latter and closed the cupboard.

After that, he grabbed two black rubbish bags from the cupboard under the sink where the empty bin was. He filled one with ramen cups, he searched in every nook and cranny of the apartment for more and found some even beneath the bed. Once that was done, he went to the bathroom to grab the white plastic basket above the washing machine/ dryer.

He removed all dirty clothes from the floor and split them into two piles: those that went in the basket to be washed and those that went in the rubbish bag. All briefs and shirts went in the basket, the orange jumpsuits went in the rubbish bin with the weird nightcap. His pajamas were carefully folded and placed underneath the pillow after making the bed. He then headed towards the wardrobe and removed every jumpsuit to put it in the trash.

That done, he headed out into the streets and threw everything in the rubbish bin beside the building. Every time someone glared at him, he waved and smiled. They looked creeped out and left quickly, he chuckled, amused by the reactions.

He got back home, placed his sandals by the door and grabbed the basket of dirty laundry. He headed towards the bathroom and started the washing machine with half the dirty clothes inside. It would take a while, so he decided to train in the meantime. He went back to the main room and stretched, half-remembered routines from the first year at the Academy and half rehabilitation the nurses made him do. He'd ask for better ones from his taijutsu teacher.

_Wonder if it's Gai?... Nah, just because he's the best doesn't mean it'll be him. He's a Jōnin-sensei and I doubt Iruka knows him… I hope he doesn't, I'm not ready for the 'Sunset of Youth'. _Stretches done, he did 50 sit-ups, 50 push-ups, 50 squats and a one-handed handstand with each arm for 10 minutes. He had to take a break halfway to empty the washing machine and start the dryer, but by the end of the workout, he was only slightly out of breath and it was fading fast. _Jinchuuriki stamina for the win!_

It was 6.30 p.m., Naruto removed the now clean clothes from the dryer and stripped. He placed the sweat filled clothing with the rest of the dirty laundry and started another load in the washing machine. _Thank fuck the Original knows how to do the laundry. I certainly didn't. _He entered the shower and poured some shower gel on his hands and soaped himself thoroughly. He washed away the suds and put shampoo in his hair, combing through it with his hands. He tried to get rid of every knot, but he was forced to give it up as a bad job. _Tomorrow, I'm buying a comb and I'll ask Iruka about a hair growing jutsu. Surely it exists? _

He washed away the shampoo and dried his body and hair with a towel. He went back to the main room, grabbed his pajamas from under his pillow and a pair of briefs from the wardrobe's first drawer. It had three, the top one for underwear and pajamas, the second one for shirts and the third for pranking supplies and smoke bombs. The ninja wire, kunai and shuriken were in his kunai pouch inside the bedside table drawer.

Naruto grabbed his list from inside the clock and ticked off 6. GET BETTER FOOD. He then removed the second load from the washing machine and started the dryer again. Iruka would bring it tomorrow. He put it back inside the clock and went to make himself dinner.

Four bowls of ramen later, he washed the dishes and put everything back in place. The clock signed 7 p.m., too early to sleep. He went back to the dryer and grabbed all the clean clothes. He carefully folded everything and put them in its proper place inside the closet. _Time to cross something else off the list. _He set the alarm for 8.30 a.m. and sat crossed leg on the bed. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply.

Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.

He opened his eyes and found himself inside a sewer. _When you say, mind in the gutter! _He giggled nervously. He knew his tenant couldn't hurt him, but he was still dealing with a likely pissed off Biju. He gathered all his courage and followed the ceiling pipes down the water filled corridor. He reached an open space and saw the golden cage. Kurama was there, waiting for him.

"You're not the same brat you were yesterday." The fox's voice was deep and gravely, like thunder. He could feel reverberating through his bones.

"No, I'm not. How did you know?" He **was** curious about that.

"Your chakra. It's more like your mother's than before."

_My chakra… _"What does it mean? And can anyone feel it?" _It would be a problem if they could._

"No," it was obvious the fox thought he was an idiot for asking. Naruto simply stared at him, waiting. "The change is subtle and easily attributed to puberty. I can tell because I live inside you."

"I gained memories from a past life. Or I took Naruto's place and his fuzzy memories." He shrugged, not knowing the answer and not really caring. **He** was Naruto now.

Kurama laughed. Naruto felt indignant, he geared up to yell at the giant fox but the being stopped him by saying, "I believe you."

"What…?" Naruto gaped, flabbergasted. He really hadn't expected anyone to believe him. Not that he ever intended to tell anyone but his tenant. The nine tailed fox couldn't tell anyone else.

"I never heard of it happening. But this is the shinobi world, anything is possible." The fox nodded sagely and Naruto couldn't help but agree with him. _Although…_

"Where I come from this world is a comic book and a tv show."

**This **seemed to surprise him, but he recovered fast. "Does it mean you know the future?"

"Yeah. I mean, the ripple effect says that because I'm not the Original Naruto, things will change. So, I know the future up to a point."

"Makes sense." They lapsed into silence after that, but something tickled at the back of Naruto's mind.

"You didn't answer my question."

"Which one?" Kurama sounded disinterested.

"What does the change in my chakra mean?" he had a suspicion and he wanted confirmation.

"What do you think it means? You can use her Chains."

_Wow. _"The Original couldn't."

Kurama looked surprised at that, "All Uzumaki can use the Chains. It's their birthright."

"Well, he couldn't." he knew he sounded snappy, but he didn't like being called a liar.

"He must have taken after his father then, some half Uzumaki are like that. It's rare, but it happens."

"But isn't that genetic? How can I have it if he didn't?"

"Chakra is only partially genetic. It mostly depends on the person's life experiences and personality. That's why a kid's chakra can be completely different from his or her parents. If it was genetic, it would feel like a mixture of the parent's chakra."

"That makes sense." Naruto wasn't sure he should ask, he didn't want to anger his tenant but this was too weird. "Why aren't you angry?"

Kurama just looked at him for a moment, "I felt like it."

Naruto facepalmed. _Bratty Biju, alright. _

"I'm going to find a way to give you more freedom and not die." He said like it was nothing, not like the Original boasted he'd be Hokage, but with a silent confidence. He **would **do it, failure was not an option.

Kurama stood, motionless and wide eyed. "Why?" it was a whisper, a hope well hidden, almost lost.

"I know how it feels like to be trapped inside a body that will die on you." He hadn't meant to say more, but Kurama's gaze conveyed his confusion.

"I was sick. A terminal disease that should have killed me as a kid. I survived to 14 by being stuck in bed, always attached to one machine or another with a nurse always on standby. When I died, I almost felt relieved. By then, every breath hurt and I could do nothing without straining myself further. This is my chance at freedom and I refuse to be responsible for the imprisonment of another being. So, I'll free you, because I wished someone had done the same for me."

Kurama clearly felt overwhelmed. Naruto chose to turn around and leave his mindscape, to give the fox time to get his bearings.

"I'll be back tomorrow night. We can talk more then."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Shopping & Revelations**

I don't own Naruto, it belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. I'm not gaining profit from this.

This chapter isn't betaed, any mistakes are my own and English is definitely not my first language. Constructive criticism is much appreciated, flames are not.

_Naruto's thoughts_

**Emphasis**

WRITING

_Naruto talking to Kurama_

**Kurama talking to Naruto **

* * *

The alarm was ringing. Naruto pawed around his bedside table to stop the racket. Blessed silence.

He blearily opened his eyes and blinked up at the ceiling. His legs felt like ants were crawling all over them. They were stuck underneath him and he was lying on top of the covers. _I must have fallen straight to sleep when I left my mindscape. Ouch. _Slowly, carefully, he stood up, he could feel the blood flowing through his legs. The tingling actually hurt now. He took a couple of careful steps to get blood flowing faster. The pain ceased.

Naruto headed towards the bathroom. He did the toilet, washed his hands and took a quick shower. He put on a pair of dark blue briefs, a green short sleeved shirt and brown cargo pants; the last two were a gift from the Hokage on his birthday last year. Looking at the clock, he saw it was 9 a.m.

The water pressure may have been shit but being able to take a shower on his own still hadn't lost its appeal so he'd taken a while. He found it both freeing and relaxing.

_For some reason, Original didn't have to pay rent, I can afford to increase the water bill a bit. Original was pretty frugal with his spending, so I have quite a bit saved up. Even if Iruka pays for my groceries just this once, no one would dare overcharge him, so even if he uses my money to buy them after today, I'll still have a considerable amount of spending money. _

Naruto decided to forego breakfast, Iruka-sensei **had **said he'd help him cook it. _I have an hour before he gets here. What to do? _He grabbed a pen and blank sheet of paper from his bedside drawer and sat at the small kitchen table. At the top of the paper he wrote WHAT I ALREADY HAVE in sloppy kanji. _I've got no idea what I'll need, so I'll just see what I __**don't **__need and let Iruka figure out the rest. _

He headed to the overhead cupboards and opened the left-hand cabinet, the one above the sink, to see what kitchenware he already owned. A frying pan, a pot, a chopping board, 4 plates, 4 bowls, 4 pairs of chopsticks, 4 forks, 5 knives and 5 spoons. _Why five knives and spoons? _The cutlery was in separate white mini vases with blue flowers on them. Original made them for a prank but decided they were too pretty to explode.

He then looked inside the cabinet beneath the sink: a bottle of dish soap, a dishtowel, a dish washing sponge, a foldable mop, a bucket, some kind of floor detergent, a spray bottle of glass cleaner, a pink cleaning cloth, a pair of yellow rubber gloves, and a roll of black rubbish bags. He added everything to his list and grabbed his kunai pouch from the bedside drawer. _Why the name if it holds other stuff too? _It was military green and frayed around the edges. He'd need to buy a new one before this one fell apart on him. He opened it and blanched. The shuriken and kunai were chipped and dulled, the spool of ninja wire was broken in multiple places and there was some weird green goo covering everything.

"Ewe. What the hell Original? Don't prank your own stuff!"

Disgusted, he threw the pack on the table and headed to the wardrobe after adding what he was currently wearing, his pajamas and the blue ninja sandals by the door to the list. The wardrobe yielded far better results than his kunai pouch: black, white and green briefs, the white shirt with the orange Uzumaki spiral he wore yesterday, a black t-shirt and a blue one, black shinobi pants, blue and grey cargo shorts and a mesh shirt hidden in the back. Once done with his clothes, he opened the last drawer: a bucket of pink paint, 12 smoke bombs, about a meter of rope and a rubber chicken. _Why a rubber chicken? _

He wrote everything down and headed to the bathroom. Opening the mirror revealed his sorry excuse for a toothbrush, his half-finished tube of toothpaste and a toilet roll. The rest of the room yielded no better results: a bottle of laundry detergent, half-empty shower gel and shampoo bottles (_No comb) _and atowel that had seen better days. In light of this disappointing discoveries, he chose to make another list on the back of the paper titled NECESSITIES:

1\. COMB (underlined three times)

2\. SHINOBI CLOTHES

3\. KUNAI POUCH

4\. KUNAI, SHURIKEN AND NINJA WIRE

5\. A WHETSTONE _(Less money spent on new weapons when they dull)_

6\. COOKING STUFF

7\. TOOTHBRUSH

8\. TOOTHPASTE

9\. SHAMPOO

10\. CONDITIONER

11\. SHOWER GEL

12\. SPONGE

13\. TOILET PAPER

14\. TOWELS

Satisfied, he looked at his alarm clock, 9.30 a.m. He climbed on top of the bed to reach the calendar and ticked off today's date. Curious, he headed to the bookshelf, he had no memory of reading any of those books but considering his sabotaged education he likely couldn't read them. Which begged the question of why he even owned them?

He read the titles, hoping to glimpse their contents: Shinobi Rules, Chakra Theory for Beginners, Math 101, Konoha's Laws and Organization, History of Konoha and Geography of the Elemental Nations. Then there were two scrolls, opening them, he realized that the blue one contained pictures of the Academy taijutsu katas while the green one was a diagram of the human body, what he assumed were the lethal points were highlighted, and a brief introduction to first aid. _No wonder Original was dead last, we can't read properly so these books are useless and the scrolls have shitty drawings that make zero sense. _Frustrated, he put everything back on the shelves.

He looked around the small apartment for a distraction before he started ranting to himself about Konoha's shitty behavior. The window caught his eye. _No curtains. Someone just has to walk up the wall and they could easily spy on me a la Edward Cullen. _He hurried to add curtains to his shopping list and checked it again. Naruto didn't know the kanji for most of these things so he just drew them, he was fairly good at that.

He looked around again and saw the fine layer of dust coating everything. Unfortunately, he had no idea if the floor cleaner would work on wooden surfaces, nor did he have anything to clean the metal fixture like stove and shower. Nor the fridge. _How do you even clean a fridge? Do I have to? _He had no idea what he needed for any of it so he just let it be. _Wait, Original almost never cleaned so…_ He grabbed the detergents from under the sink and checked their expiration date, the dish soap was good but the glass and floor cleaner had to be thrown away. The laundry detergent on top of the washing machine dryer combo was still good too.

Naruto huffed, bored now. His eye fell on his list again and sparked an idea. He grabbed another blank paper from the drawer and started drawing. He preferred pencils to pens when sketching but he'd make do. He chose to draw Inu, the one time he saw him clearly. The ANBU guards didn't protect him from everything, he got kicked out of shops, insults were thrown behind his back but no one ever hurt him physically. Poisoning his food apparently didn't count, or they just hadn't noticed.

That was more likely, disappointing but not unexpected. ANBU obviously wasn't all it was cracked up to be: Original, as a barely trained Academy students managed to prank the ANBU locker room. _Idiots. _ Anyway, the only time his guards actually had to interfere, that he knew of, was when a couple of drunkards had decided to trash his apartment. They never did it again.

He drew Inu, with his dog mask, ANBU uniform and hood. He was holding a man against the wall by his throat, the man's friends were cowering in the corner with terror on their faces.

Naruto was contemplating his finished product when he heard a knock. He left the drawing on the table beside his list and went to let his teacher in. Iruka was holding two brown paper bags filled with food in his arms and a plastic bag with a black box inside it hanging from his fingers. He kicked the door closed while Naruto helped him put the bags on the table.

"Good morning Naruto. Ready to cook?"

"Good morning sensei. Yeah, I'm hungry." Just then, his stomach rumbled. Naruto blushed scarlet red and Iruka laughed at him.

"I can hear that. Help me with the groceries."

Naruto silently helped him put everything away. The bread, rice, oatmeal, oil, vinegar, flour, salt, pepper and sugar went in the cupboard over the stove with his cereal. The meat and fish went in the refrigerator above the fridge while the milk, water, eggs, vegetables, strawberry jam, cheese, ham and butter went inside the fridge. He grabbed a bowl and put it in the middle of the table with the bananas, oranges and apples inside it. The bags were thrown away, only the mysterious black box was left.

"What's in there, sensei?"

"A rice cooker." Iruka was grinning.

"What? That's too much sensei! Buying me groceries was enough."

"I'm not paying." The man was grinning like the cat that ate the canary. It felt vaguely threatening.

"I can't pay for all this stuff sensei." _He was an orphan. He should know I can't afford it._

"Hokage-sama is paying." Iruka must have noticed his surprise so he explained, "As soon as you left, I went to the Hokage's office and told him what you told me. I may have yelled at him a bit."

The scarred Chunin rubbed the back of his head sheepishly while Naruto gaped at him. _He yelled at his military dictator… for __**me**__. _Naruto could feel tears build in his eyes so he hugged his teacher tightly and hid his face in the man's chest. Iruka gently rubbed his back without saying anything, the Jinchuuriki could smell the man's concern so he double checked his eyes were dry and let go.

His sensei looked him over, but once he saw he was fine he kept explaining, "Mizuki and Tsubasa were arrested and are currently being investigated," _Aka interrogated _"but Hokage-sama felt guilty for not listening when you said they hated you" _That was years ago, how does he remember that? _"so, he paid for everything and will fund today's shopping trip." _It's the least he could do. It's his fault they know about my tenant. _"He asks that you go see him tomorrow afternoon. I think he wants to apologize in person."

Naruto nodded to show he understood. _Maybe I can get him to tell me about Kyuubi and my parents. I planned to tell Iruka about Original's theory about being the fox's kid or reincarnation and make him force Jiji to tell me the truth. This is better though. _While he plotted, Iruka had unpacked the rice cooker.

"Come on, Naruto. Let's start the lesson."

"What are we making, sensei?" He was honestly excited, he'd never cooked before and couldn't wait to learn. He refused to ever be dependent on anyone like he was Before, cooking was a good place to start. Becoming a Genin and earning his own income would make him a legal and independent adult, to do that he first had to graduate in June.

_Wait. If I pass, I won't get to learn Kage Bunshin. Although, Mizuki is in T&I, his betrayal will surely be discovered, so no telling me to steal the scroll. Damn it! I'll have to convince Iruka to teach me it, or find someone who can. Maybe once he sees I can't learn the normal Bushin… _

"Naruto?" The Chunin was shaking him, worried. "You alright?"

"Yes sensei!" He grinned, "I was just thinking of all these awesome foods we'll make. Can you make dango sensei? I never had any."

Iruka smiled at him sadly and ruffled his hair, "Sure Naruto. I'll teach you how to make it."

Naruto smiled up at him adoringly, making the man blush.

"First though, today I'll teach you to make omurice."

Iruka-sensei cooked omurice for himself while Naruto copied his every move with his own dish. Once the dish was done, they split it in two and each ate half of the other's creation and their own. Iruka's was perfect, soft and tasty, Naruto's was a bit bland.

"Not bad, Naruto. Pretty good for a first attempt. You've got talent kid." Naruto puffed up his chest, proud as can be. He knew the man was likely exaggerating, but he couldn't help it. No one complimented the dying kid nor the Jinchuuriki, it felt good.

They cleaned up the kitchen and Naruto showed the teacher his lists. The man complimented him for the forethought and the drawings, but while his mouth was smiling, his eyes were sad. Naruto didn't need to ask to know the man felt guilty for not noticing his semi-illiterate state, especially when it was so blatantly in his face. Naruto couldn't help the spark of vindictive pleasure he felt. He loved the scarred Chunin like a brother, but he did kind of blame him for not noticing his predicament. With all the time he spent harping on about his horrible grades and dragging him back to class one would think he'd pay attention enough to notice.

_For fuck's sake, the man abandons his students almost every day to drag me back to class, leaving them with Mizuki-teme, and then lectures me about responsibility. I'm pretty sure it's far worse for a teacher to skip school to run after a single student than a kid playing truant. If I wasn't the Jinchuuriki he wouldn't bother. _

He did feel bitter about that, even the Original thought it wasn't normal, but with no knowledge of what he was, he'd just been glad that someone cared. Naruto didn't doubt Iruka **did **care for him, but his nose had clearly told him that when he first started 'stalking' him he definitely hadn't. The man had never hated him, but he hadn't cared until he saw him crying on the swing. The Original had smelled him there and heard his gasp, but had chosen to ignore him, too caught up in his own sadness to care. Naruto knew that it was in that moment that Iruka had stopped seeing him as the container and started caring.

Too caught up in his own thoughts, Naruto almost didn't catch Iruka's glance at Inu's portrait. He waited for the man to ask, but nothing came. In fact, the Chunin merely told him to grab his shoes and lists. Naruto put his blue shinobi sandals on and locked the door behind them. The blond couldn't contain his excitement, it had been years since his last shopping trip, he grabbed an amused Iruka by the hand and skipped along towards the market. He ignored the glares from passers-by, giggling every time Iruka glared at them heatedly, making them scurry off in a hurry. _Can dish it out but not take it, typical._

Their first stop was a home depot. They bought a wooden spoon, a spatula, a ladle, a toaster, a vegetable peeler, chopping knives, a citrus reamer, a mixing whisk, a big glass bowl and a stainless-steel meat tenderizer. He also bought bath towels and hand towels in light blue, green and grey and dark green curtains with a steel rod to attach to his window and hang them up. Naruto felt faint when he saw the bill. _Thank fuck I'm not paying._

"Are we going home now?"

"What? Why? We're not done yet. Is everything alright?" Iruka was looking around like he thought someone had upset him.

"How can we shop with all these bags? They're heavy." Naruto knew he was whining, but he didn't care. Shopping was meant to be fun, not strength training.

Iruka suddenly looked mischievous. He grabbed a small scroll from his vest pocket, opened it and placed the bags on top of it. A hand-sign he would recognize as 'ram' later and their purchases disappeared.

Naruto froze, "You know Fuinjutsu sensei?"

Iruka grinned, "I'm not a master, but I can make storage scrolls, exploding tags and simple barrier seals. The basics."

"So cool! Teach me, teach me!" yelled Naruto while clapping his hands and jumping up and down like an over excited bunny.

Iruka chuckled while grabbing the scroll from the ground, "Sure."

"Wha...? Really?!" Naruto didn't dare hope, teaching a Jinchuuriki Fuinjutsu, even if an Uzumaki, seemed counterproductive.

"Of course. I promised I'd teach you the basics." He winked, mischievous.

Naruto giggled, amused by this show of defiance. Towards who, he didn't know. Maybe Konoha's prejudiced bastards, maybe his peers or the Hokage. He doubted the man would get in trouble for it, and knowing Fuinjutsu would help him survive. _I've decided, Original couldn't use chakra chains, but I can. I'll learn them and become a Fuinjutsu Master. I'll free Kurama and rebuild the Uzumaki Clan greater and better than before. If I have to be Hokage to do that then, by the gods, I'll be Hokage, believe it! _He inwardly cringed at the return of Original's catchphrase.

Iruka handed him the storage scroll and he put it in his shorts' pocket. They then headed to the convenience store to buy cleaning supplies, 2 tubes of toothpaste, a toothbrush, scentless shampoo, conditioner, shower gel and body lotion (_They're not, not really. The woodsy smell is just very faint._), a puddle brush, a fine-toothed comb (_Finally!_), a soft sponge and toilet paper.

From there to Azuki's weapon store. Naruto hid behind Iruka when going in, he'd never been to the previous two shops so the cashier hadn't recognized him on sight until they went to pay. When they'd tried to kick him out, Iruka had intervened, from the way they paled, Naruto suspected Killing Intent had been involved. Unfortunately, Azuki knew him, the bastard always sold him shitty weapons, but he at least allowed him inside. Most weapon shops didn't. _Probably scared I'd use them to destroy Konoha or some shit. _

Azuki noticed him and smiled maliciously, "Back for more already, demon?" and he laughed like a hyena.

Naruto grimaced, somehow, the bastard always sounded suggestive. It was an annoying talent of his. Iruka stared the man down, his scent spicy with fury. Naruto almost sneezed.

"Naruto-kun," Naruto looked up at his teacher, but the Chunin never once removed his gaze from the owner, "go outside for a moment. I need to speak with Azuki-san."

Naruto hurried to comply, not wanting to be caught in the crossfire. Through the display window, he saw them heading to the backroom. He felt awkward, standing around doing nothing while passers-by stared at him. Luckily, Iruka-sensei came out soon and grabbed him by the hand while walking away from the shop.

"What happened?" _And why was he so angry? People have been glaring and making snide comments since we started shopping. Even the previous cashiers didn't earn more than a threatening glare. _

"Nothing. We just talked about what you shouldn't tell a kid." He said dismissively.

_Ah, the Third's secrecy law. Telling their kids I'm a demon or calling me so behind my back is fine, but heaven forbid they say it to my face! _Naruto sneered, the sheer hypocrisy disgusted him. No one did anything when they poisoned his food or kicked him out of shops, but as soon as they even hinted at his tenant they were punished. Like their behavior alone wasn't enough to make him suspicious. Never mind that he could hear them even when they thought he couldn't. Original had heard many interesting things that way, like how the Third forbade anyone from telling him the 'truth' or how Sasuke's mom thought he was 'just like Kushina-chan.' _Nice woman, Mikoto Uchiha. Too bad Itachi killed her, maybe I can bond with Sasuke through his mum?_

Distracted, Naruto didn't notice they'd reached another weapon shop until Iruka dragged him inside. The blond had never been here, it was too expensive for his measly stipend. He braced himself for yelling but nothing came, in fact, the old man manning the counter smiled at him. Just to be sure, Naruto looked behind himself, when he turned around, the old guy was still grinning. Weirded out, Naruto half hid behind Iruka who dragged him back in front of him with an encouraging smile.

The Jinchuuriki decided to ignore the crazy old fossil for now, heading to where he could see the kunai and shuriken. He grabbed two packs of eight each, a spool of ninja wire and a black kunai pouch made from a more durable material than his previous one. On the way to the counter, he also grabbed a pack of senbon and a whetstone. Iruka-sensei added a pack of exploding tags, a pair of brushes, an ink bottle, a metal inkwell and 10 blank scrolls.

"For Fuinjutsu lessons." He explained.

The old man tallied up the total, Naruto was once again thankful he wasn't paying. While Iruka forked over the cash, Naruto put the kunai, shuriken and senbon in his weapon pouch which he then wrapped around his waist in place of a belt. The actual pouch was on his right hip, within easy reach of his hand. The ninja wire, ink, inkwell and scrolls were sealed away while the exploding tags went in his pockets after Iruka told him you couldn't put exploding tags in a storage scroll without destabilizing them.

"Come again anytime," said the smiling elderly man.

"We will," answered Iruka. Naruto merely waved at him, smiling shyly. Only old man Teuchi and the old woman of the prank shop had ever told him that. _Maybe old people are all like that? _He then remembered several who spit on him when he passed or called him murderer and decided that no, those three were just weird.

Once they left the weapon's shop, Iruka looked at his watch to see it was noon already. They bought takoyaki from a nearby stand, Naruto ate three plates, and headed to a shinobi clothing store. The girl manning the counter looked up only for a second when she heard the bell above the door ringing, she then went back to reading her magazine. Naruto smiled, relieved, she couldn't be older than 16, too young to know about his tenant. The Jinchuuriki looked around excitedly, grabbing everything that caught his eye and putting it back.

He first wanted to figure out what he wanted and then try stuff on. Did he want mesh? A Haori? A mask to hide his whiskers? Naruto's eyes kept glancing at the kunoichi section of the store where he could see several younger girls trying on colorful qipaos and skirts. He noticed Iruka glancing between him and the girls speculatively and resolutely turned his back on them, grabbing a pair of blue shinobi pants to pretend he hadn't been distracted.

"Is there nothing you like, Naruto?"

Iruka looked pointedly at him and the blond blushed, looking away from him and back to the kunoichi section. Realizing what he'd done, he looked away quickly but it was too late. Iruka now looked at him in understanding and Naruto couldn't keep from blushing and fidgeting guiltily. Iruka just smiled, grabbed his hand and dragged him out of the store, walking determinately through the streets heading back to his apartment. Naruto could feel tears forming at the corners of his eyes, he'd been having fun. He didn't want to go home. He didn't want Iruka to hate him.

Naruto blinked, confused when they headed left, his apartment was to the **right**. They stopped in front of a shop with dark windows near the outskirts of the Red-Light District, on the opposite side from his apartment. Naruto couldn't read the name. The bell above the door chimed when they entered, a man and a woman, the only other people in the shop, stopped talking and turned towards them. The man was tall, brown hair and brown eyes with a mole underneath his left eye. The woman had long black hair that reached her bum and expressive blue eyes.

While Iruka went to talk to them, Naruto curiously looked around, it **looked **like a simple clothing shop for both civilians and shinobi. _Why bring me here? _Suspicious now, Naruto looked more closely at the underwear selection beside him. Padded bras, corsets, padded underwear, panties with a penis… _wait, a penis?!_ Naruto looked again and yes, those panties **did** have a dildo attached.

Naruto rushed to Iruka-sensei, grabbed his arm to turn him towards him and pointed at the man's face accusingly: "You brought me to a SEX SHOP?!"

The man and woman laughed, while Iruka stammered through an answer. Taking pity on the poor Chunin, the woman introduced herself and her companion, "Hello, child. I'm Kikyo and this is Rei. This is our shop, where anyone can discover their true self."

Clearly seeing his confusion, Rei laughingly told him, "It's a shop for transgenders, kid. Whether you're a man in a female's body or vice versa, or you just like to cross-dress, this is the shop for you."

Naruto gaped. _Well, that answers the question of whether sensei would be alright with it, but just to be sure… _"So, it's alright if I want to dress like a girl even though I **know** I'm a boy? I just want to feel pretty." He was aiming for a confident tone of voice, but the question came out hesitantly, quiet.

Iruka placed his hands on the boy's shoulders and smiled, "It's perfectly fine, Naruto. Civilians may not like it, but shinobi have far weirder quirks. This isn't **that** rare."

Naruto felt both relief and a bit of disbelief. It sounded too good to be true.

"Liking the same gender is also fine. Same sex marriages are legal in Konoha and every other shinobi village." Iruka laughed at his student's fish-like expression, still laughing, he handed him over to Kikyo's capable hands. He sat in a chair beside the counter and in front of a changing room, "I'll be right here, kiddo. Just let Kikyo-san take care of everything."

Naruto nodded, dazed by this new information. Giggling, Kikyo started measuring him while Rei and Iruka talked like old friends.

Size taken, Kikyo brought him to the corset rack, "First, girls have curves that boys don't have. A corset will give you an hourglass figure. As you're a shinobi, I think you should get one of these," she said while pointing at another rack of corsets, "these have a layer of mesh armor inside. You won't feel it, but it will give you more protection in the field."

Naruto grabbed a white one and a black one in his size and placed them in the wooden shopping basket Kikyo handed him. She then gently grabbed his arm and led him to the underwear section.

"What underwear are you wearing, Naru-chan?" she asked while sifting through the choices.

Naruto blushed scarlet and stammered, "B-b-briefs."

Kikyo nodded, satisfied. "Those are fine, unless you want something else?"

Naruto frantically shook his head no, briefs were fine. _I'm too young for lingerie! Maybe when I'm older. _A perverted giggle escaped from his lips, thankfully, Kikyo ignored it, likely thinking the question made him nervous.

"If you want breasts, I suggest one of these." She said while pointing at a selection of bras, "You're still a kid, so a simple padded bra will work. Or you can get one with fake breasts if you want. I'd leave that for when you're older, if I was you."

Naruto nodded and took his list from his left pocket, Original may not have known the word for briefs, but he knew his colors so beside the drawing of his underwear were written the different colors he owned. He read through it and grabbed a padded bra in dark blue, a white one, a black one and a green one. He added an orange pair of briefs with coordinated bra just because he **was** Naruto and orange was still his favorite color, closely followed by purple and sky blue which he also threw in the basket Thankfully, all three went well with his blond hair, blue eyes and sun kissed skin. He added his purchases to the basket and followed Kikyo to the clothing rack.

"What look are you going for?"

Naruto shrugged at the woman's question. Kikyo nodded like she had expected that and told him to look around for anything that caught his eye. The boy sifted through the clothing, he ended up grabbing knee length black leggings, a sky-blue battle kimono and an orange qipao with a red vines motif. Both reached no further than his thighs. Kikyo handed him a dark blue obi and he added everything to his basket with another 6 pairs of leggings. He foresaw several getting filthy or outright destroyed in his quest to learn taijutsu. He kept searching and added a purple battle kimono with yellow butterflies paired with the same dark blue obi as the sky blue one. A mint green qipao with pink sakura petals joined it in the basket. Both qipaos had slits on either side for ease of movement.

Thinking he was done with the clothes, he started heading to the shoe section but Kikyo stopped him.

"This will be your shinobi clothes, yes?" she asked him gently. Naruto nodded. "You'll need clothes from when you're off-duty too."

The boy pointedly looked down at what he was wearing and looked back at her.

Kikyo giggled, "Silly Naru-chan, those aren't appropriate at all."

She dragged him to another clothing rack and picked a knee length, sleeveless white sundress with orange flowers and green vines all over. She grabbed a knee length olive green skirt with a high waist and a white spaghetti strap top. She added a denim jacket and dragged her unresisting victim to the shoe section. From there, Naruto grabbed black shinobi sandals, closed white chunky heels and black wedge sandals. He saw a pair of brown ankle booties in the corner of his eye and fell in love.

Seeing his gaze, Kikyo grinned bloodthirsty, "Those have a secret compartment you can hide a short blade in. There's a Fuinjutsu mechanism that pushes the blade out or hides it depending on how you pump your chakra through it. It was created by a friend of mine called Kushina."

If the boots themselves weren't enough to make him buy them, their deadliness and knowing his mother had helped make them would do it. From the way she looked at him when she said her name and the wistfulness, he could smell from her, Kikyo clearly knew who birthed him. He felt teary eyed. _Kushina, the Original's…no, __**my**_ _mom created these seals. She accepted Kikyo as her friend, she would've accepted me too for sure. _Naruto noticed Kikyo looking curiously at his glistening eyes; to hide the real reason, he started gushing over how awesome they were and how Iruka-sensei would teach him Fuinjutsu and he'd be even better than 'this Kushina-san'. The reminder that he wasn't supposed to know his mother, which he did, seemed enough to depress her and get her to move on. The Uzumaki breathed a sigh of relief. _I better be more careful._

Naruto headed to the changing room to try everything on. At first, he was shy about showing off his purchases to Iruka-sensei, but the Chunin kept smiling and calling him beautiful while Rei and Kikyo yelled in encouragement. He started gaining confidence, twirling and showing off his clothes. He was twirling around to make his sundress' skirt swirl prettily when Kikyo stopped him.

"Come here, Naru-chan."

He skipped to her side and let her place her hands in his hair. Her palms glowed green and she started rubbing his scalp. Naruto closed his eyes and purred, shocked, he opened his eyes and blushed when everyone laughed at him. He giggled too, embarrassed and amused in equal measure. _I didn't know I could do that!_

Still giggling, she removed her still glowing hands from his head, "Well, Naru-chan. Look."

She turned him around towards the open changing room, more specifically, the full-length mirror. His hair now reached his shoulders. He really looked like a girl, he smiled happily and hugged the woman tightly.

"Do you want it longer Naru-chan?" she was smiling gently at him, but her eyes were elsewhere. He wondered who she saw, was it his mother?

He nodded, throat too closed up to speak. Kikyo seemed to understand and just put her hands on his scalp again until his hair reached his mid-back. Naruto thanked her and grabbed her purchases from the changing room, he kept the sundress and white heels on. _Thank Kami for shinobi training, _He placed everything on the counter, Rei bagged them and tallied up the total.

"Wait," called Kikyo, "we're not done yet."

She placed a pack of differently colored hair ties on the counter and started teaching him how to braid his hair. She taught him to make a ponytail, a bun, pigtails, a classic braid and a cascade braid. Satisfied, she watched while Naruto did the last one himself and left his hair like that. Iruka paid and sealed away the purchases, as they left, the blond promised he'd be by again. It was 3 p.m., they bought a dango stick and cup of green tea from a food stand near-by, Naruto loved it and bugged Iruka until the man promised he'd teach him how to make it.

On the ground floor of his apartment complex, the Jinchuuriki suddenly stopped. Iruka looked at him in concern but the 12-year-old was ignoring him. Now, Original knew his senses were superior to normal people, which is why he tried to ignore them. Some of them, like his sense of smell or hearing couldn't be pushed aside no matter how much he tried. Chakra sensing on the other hand… well, Naruto wasn't surprised that Original never used it in the series. It was like a muscle, if unused it atrophied and became useless, his range was already far diminished from when he was younger. However, Naruto himself didn't see chakra sensing as proof of being a demon, like Original did. He knew it was a useful skill that Uzumaki and other shinobi had, so, instead of ignoring his chakra sense like Original did, he paid attention. Right now, he was sensing an unknown chakra signature in his apartment.

He took the stairs two at a time, ignoring Iruka's calls and demands for an explanation. He hurriedly grabbed the key from his pocket and opened the door just as the person inside his home seemed to disappear and reappear beside Iruka, then disappeared again and headed away from the building. He rushed in and dashed to his bed, pawing at the floorboards beneath until one came loose. He grabbed Gama-chan, his frog shaped wallet, and checked the contents. None of the bills were missing. Calmer now, he looked around carefully and saw an ironing board mounted on the wall, it would block the entrance to the bathroom when in use. The iron was mounted on a metal piece beside the board, close to the bookshelf. There was a new, bigger kitchen cupboard above a new counter beside the stove, near the bathroom door. He headed to the bathroom, nothing was different there. Iruka came in just as he finished putting Gama-chan back in its hiding place.

"What took you so long, sen-sei?" his voice was accusing, a malicious, teasing drawl.

Iruka either didn't hear the anger in his student's voice, or chose to ignore it, "Why did you rush off like that?!"

Naruto stood up from the floor, walked to Iruka and pushed the door closed. He leaned against it and pointed to the kitchen chair, "Sit."

Once the man did, the Jinchuuriki crossed his arms in front of his chest, "Explain." Seeing that his teacher didn't understand, he took a deep breath and rephrased it, "Explain to me why I sensed an unknown in **my **home. Explain to me, why he talked to **you **before he left. **Now**, sensei."

Shamefaced, Iruka apologized, "I'm sorry, Naruto-kun. I should've asked you, I'm sorry." Naruto remained silent, eyes expectant. Iruka kept talking, "It was a present for you. After we bought the kitchenware, I realized your cupboards were too small. So, when you were distracted by Kikyo, I left through the back and asked a friend to buy you a bigger one and install it. The counter was his idea to fit the rest of the kitchen. Kotetsu saw you had a washing machine and a dryer but no iron, so he bought one and an ironing board. I should have asked you, I'm sorry."

Naruto sighed, it was a nice gesture, even though it was a huge invasion of privacy, "I understand. But **never **do it again. I'll prank this Kotetsu guy to hell, believe it!"

Iruka looked relieved it wasn't him who'd suffer. Naruto stepped away from the door and asked the man to hand over the storage scrolls, he'd given them to the Chunin while he was changing. His clothes, while beautiful, had no pockets. He'd be fixing that, Original had learned how to sew to save money and Kikyo had given him several patches of cloth for free when he'd asked while selecting his new shinobi clothes. She'd seemed amused by the request and more than willing to give him some leftover fabric.

Iruka grabbed the scrolls from his vest pockets and handed them over, a curious expression on his face, "How did you know Kotetsu was here?"

"I sensed his chakra," Naruto grabbed the scrolls, ignored his gaping teacher and unsealed one of them.

The scroll in question contained the kitchenware, cleaning supplies, curtains, toiletries and towels.

"Do you know how to secure my apartment from ninjas?" he asked the still open-mouthed Chunin while sorting through the pile, double checking that they'd bought everything he needed.

"Yes, I know several security seals to keep outsiders out."

Naruto waited for him to address his abilities as a sensor, but the man seemed determined to ignore them. Mentally shrugging, he demanded to be taught.

"It will take time. You first need to learn kanji and have perfect calligraphy. After that I'll have to teach you the basics of Fuinjutsu before you can learn security seals." seeing how Naruto was preparing to yell at him, he hurried to say, "I'll do the security and key everything to your chakra signature. Once you learn Fuinjutsu you can redo it to your liking. Ok?"

Naruto nodded, satisfied by the arrangement. Silently, Iruka grabbed the curtain rod and dark green drapery and set it up while Naruto put the cooking implements in his new cupboard. He moved the rice cooker from the table where they'd left it that morning and placed it on his new counter, the toaster and chopping knives went beside it. The cleaning supplies went beneath the sink.

His toothbrush went in the marble cup on the sink with a tube of toothpaste, the other one went behind the mirror with the spare toilet rolls, puddle brush and body lotion. The scentless, shampoo, conditioner and shower gel went in the shower rack with his new sponge and fine-toothed comb. The light blue hand towel went on the metal ring beside the sink while the body towel went on the towel rack beside the shower. He headed to his closet in the main room and placed his grey and green towels in the underwear drawer. By the time he was done, Iruka had already finished setting up his curtains and started on the security seals.

Naruto left him to it and unsealed the last scroll. He threw away his old kunai pouch and weapons and grabbed his new ones. He used a kunai to cut off a piece of ninja wire as long as his hair. _Long hair isn't practical for shinobi, but if I braid it with ninja wire anyone who grabs it will get cut. I'll learn to channel wind chakra through it like Sasuke does fire, just to be sure. _His black kunai pouch was bigger than his old one and had two inside pockets. He put the kunai in one and the shuriken in the other, the leftover ninja wire went in the prank drawer of his wardrobe with his bundle of Senbon (_Need a new bag for these_… _and to learn how to use them._), whetstone and exploding tags. The bottle of ink, metal inkwell and 10 blank scrolls went on the bookshelf. The brushes went in his bedside table drawer with his pens and papers.

The pack of colorful hair ties went in his mirror cabinet in the bathroom, beside his paddle brush. His new briefs and bras went in his underwear drawer with the black armored corset, dark blue obi and six pairs of leggings. He was wearing his white one beneath the sundress paired with a white bra and blue briefs. The green shirt and brown cargo short he wore this morning were thrown in the white plastic basket in the bathroom with his pajamas, ready to be washed. His new white spaghetti strap top went in the second drawer with the other shirts. He hung up his battle kimonos, qipaos, olive skirt and denim jacket beside his pants. He removed his white heels and placed them with his other shoes on the shelf beneath the hanging rod.

"Naruto, are you done yet?" Iruka was holding an inked brush by the open door, a seal was covering the outside of the door in large curves and dips.

Naruto nodded and walked to his teacher's side, the man grabbed his right hand and made a small cut on his pointer finger with a kunai.

He then placed the blonde's digit on the handle, "Push your chakra to your finger."

Naruto did as told, or at least tried to. Blue chakra covered his whole hand, instead of just his pointer. Iruka seemed satisfied anyway. The blue chakra touched the black ink and was absorbed, the seal glowed for a second and disappeared.

"Good job, Naruto," he said while ruffling his hair.

Naruto glared at him, patting his head to check that his cascade braid was still perfect. Then he looked up at the man, silently asking for an explanation. _Where did the seal go?_

Seeing his confusion, Iruka closed the door, "Now Naruto, the security is now keyed to you. From now on, every time you go out, you do these," _rat, snake, boar_ "coat your hands in chakra and place it on the door. This will activate the security seals, to deactivate them, just do the opposite," _boar, snake, rat_ "and add chakra to the door."

"No blood?"

"No, no blood. That was only necessary to key you to the defenses. If you want to key someone else to them, you have to make these," _ram, hare, monkey _"add your chakra and blood to the door, then the blood and chakra of whoever you want to be keyed in."

Naruto grabbed the Chunin's kunai, opened the already healed cut on his hand, (_Kurama's great_) did the hand signs and placed his hand against the door. The seal reappeared. Iruka cut his finger and added his blood and chakra to the door. The ink glowed and disappeared.

They went back inside and repeated the process with the window. _I didn't even notice he put seals here too. Also, why doesn't the bathroom have a window? _He pondered on that for a second, before deciding he didn't really care. His apartment was small and kind of crappy, but it was **his** and he'd never have to go back to his room/prison ever again.

Iruka scoffed, Naruto turned to look at him, wondering if he'd said it out loud. The Chunin was by the kitchen table, glaring at his dust covered finger. Naruto laughed sheepishly and the man turned to glare at him. He became a whirlwind after that, forcing the blond to change into the old clothes from that morning (_Right, wouldn't want to get my pretty sundress dirty._) and helped him clean his apartment. Naruto didn't complain, much, he was honestly glad to get rid of all the dust, and learning how to clean. _Original didn't really know what to do. Or felt any need to give this place more than a cursory wipe down._

Once the apartment was cleaner than it had ever been before, it was 5 p.m. Iruka grabbed a storage scroll from his vest pocket and unsealed several books, empty notebooks and pencils.

"These are for you…"

Naruto didn't let him finish, he hugged him, overjoyed. _I won't be illiterate anymore! And I have better stuff to draw with too! _The teacher laughed, they sat down at the table and started the lesson. Naruto was surprised to discover that he wouldn't be learning kanji. Turns out, he wasn't the only one who had problems with those and that hiragana was the main alphabet he was supposed to know. Iruka-sensei promised to teach him kanji anyway, they were useful in general and absolutely necessary for Fuinjutsu. Turns out, Fuinjutsu was mainly kanji and symbols linked together. _Wonder if I can use English? Also, how is it that the numbers here are the same as in my world? There's no Latin here._

They stopped at 7 p.m. to shower and cook dinner. At first, the older man was hesitant about using his shower but Naruto convinced him. It helped that Iruka had brought a change of clothes, turns out he always had a scroll ready for unexpected missions. _Smart. I'll do the same once I'm Genin._ Dinner was grilled salmon with mashed potatoes.

While they were cleaning the dishes, Naruto quietly called "Sensei?"

"Uhm?"

Naruto hesitated for a second, "Should I dress like a girl tomorrow?"

Iruka smiled at him, "Do what you want, kid."

"But what if they bully me?"

Iruka ruffled his hair and promised "I won't let them. They should know better to tease someone about their sexuality or gender preferences."

Naruto looked at him, eyes filled with doubt. Iruka just smiled comfortingly and kept drying the dishes. Naruto sighed, _what a naive answer._

Later, he saw his teacher out, sealed the door and window, threw away the shopping list he'd left on the table and placed the beginner books on hiragana and kanji on the bookshelf with the notebook he'd used. He grabbed his blue backpack from beneath the bed, and added the pencils to his frog pencil case. _What's with all this frog themed stuff? Original even had a frog t-shirt and plushie once. They kept appearing on October 10th, but who would…? Jiraiya? Kakashi, maybe? Well, not important._

He looked at his timetable hidden in the backpack and picked the necessary books: Konoha's Laws and Organization, Math 101 and Shinobi Rules. He added three of his new notebooks, there were 6 in total: one for learning to write, one for Fuinjutsu, one for drawing and three for school. _Can't believe Original never bothered with more than his kunai pack… Sabotage or not, no wonder he was dead last._ The three storage scrolls Iruka had left went in the third drawer of his wardrobe with the pranking and shinobi gear. He placed Inu's portrait he'd done that morning in his drawing notebook and hid the journal in his bedside drawer. He wasn't ashamed of his art, but it was private and not something he showed people. Iruka had already seen it, but the scarred Chunin was special, Naruto **remembered** how it felt for someone to finally acknowledge him, he **knew **Original saw him as an older brother. Frankly, so did he. It's why he went to him for help and not the Hokage. Original may have liked, even trusted the old man, but he didn't. He couldn't trust a man who let a monster like Danzo walk free, who told the village about his status. _Minato's last will or not, he should've known better._

Naruto was already in his pajamas, so he brushed his teeth and hair, closed the window curtains and went to bed. He grabbed the lists from inside the alarm clock and ticked off what he'd done on his short-term list:

1\. KANJI (_Iruka's teaching me_)

5\. LEARN HISTORY, SHINOBI RULES, ETC (_I'll pay attention in class and once I can read properly, I can study on my own_),

7\. LEARN HOW TO COOK (_I'm learning, so it counts)_

14\. TALK TO KURAMA (_He was nicer than I thought._)

16\. IS HOMOSEXUALITY ACCEPTED IN KONOHA? (_Yes!_)

17\. LET HAIR GROW OUT. FIND OUT IF JUTSU CAN SPEED IT UP (_Thank you, Kikyo._)

18\. BUY NEW FEMALE CLOTHES (_So pretty!_)

19\. BUY BETTER TOILETRIES (_Good hygiene, here I come!_)

20\. BETTER SHINOBI EQUIPMENT (_Expensive too._)

He also crossed out number 3 on his long-term list, LEARN FUINJUTSU, and wrote MASTER FUINJUTSU.

That done, he hid the lists again and set the clock for 7 a.m., the Academy started at 8.30. He laid down and meditated. _Time to talk to my Biju again._

* * *

I want to thank all those who commented, I like hearing your opinions. Also, those who started following/ favorited me or this story. Love you guys!

13/04/2020

I fixed some grammatical mistakes that irritated me and decided to repost it with the changes. I didn't really change anything though.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Kurama, the Academy & Meeting the Hokage**

I don't own Naruto, it belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. I'm not gaining profit from this.

This chapter isn't betaed, any mistakes are my own and English is definitely not my first language. Constructive criticism is much appreciated, flames are not.

_Naruto's thoughts_

**Emphasis**

WRITING

_Naruto talking to Kurama_

**Kurama talking to Naruto **

* * *

"You're back," the fox seemed surprised.

"I said I would be."

The fox sniffed, like his word meant nothing to him, but Naruto could see the glances Kurama kept throwing at him.

"Ask." Naruto knew he was being kind of rude, but the shopping had tired him out more than he realised.

"You said you'd free me. How?" from the sounds of it, Kurama didn't believe he could do it. Naruto didn't blame him, even he had his doubts, but he was determined. _If Original could save the world, I can free my Biju without killing myself._

"I'll master Fuinjutsu. Study this seal and create a new one that will give you your freedom and not kill me." Naruto sighed, "It will take me years, but you've waited this long, what's a decade or two more?"

"If you live that long."

_Depressing much? _"Won't you die if I die?"

"Yes," grumbled the old fox.

"So…" Naruto smirked, "isn't in your best interest for me to survive?"

"Yes," he growled.

_I can work with this, although… _"Do all Biju die if their Jinchuuriki does?" _didn't Isobu survive after Yagura died?_

"No," he admitted, "this seal was made through a deal with the Shinigami. It tied our souls together, if you die so will I."

"Does it also count if it's old age that kills me?"

"Yes, unless you release me first."

Naruto was hit by a sudden realisation, slapped his right fist against his left palm, "I doubt the Shiki Fuujin can be broken without killing me, the Shinigami is a death god no?" Kurama started growling and baring his fangs, Naruto ignored him and pressed on. "I'll still try, but I'll focus on modifying the seal to let you interact with the outside world, maybe I can create one were your consciousness and a portion of your chakra can exist independently outside the seal." Kurama stopped growling, Naruto smiled at this and finished, "Either way, I'll find someplace where you won't be found by humans and I'll release the seal there, once I'm an old man. If I die young, I'll free you before I pass but I can't promise they won't seal you away again."

Kurama looked amazed, at what he didn't know. Not until he heard him whisper, "You actually mean it."

The blond looked at him, confused, "How would you know? I could be lying to you. I'm not, but I could be."

The Biju laughed, "I can feel your emotions. I would know if you lied to me."

"Useful, wish it went both ways though." He grumbled

"Concentrate, human."

Naruto chose to ignore the derisive nickname. He closed his eyes and concentrated on the being in front of him. At first, he felt nothing, but just as he was about to give up: hope, loneliness, grief, rage, amazement. He gasped and stared at the fox, the rage and loneliness were almost overwhelming. The other feelings were just a drop in the sea.

"I'll be your friend," Naruto ignored the gaping fox, "we'll be partners and we won't feel lonely ever again! Believe it!"

The fox looked speechless, Naruto grinned and leapt closer to the cage bars. He held his hand out and smiled happily at his tenant, "I'm Naruto Uzumaki. Let's be friends, ok?"

Naruto could feel the confusion mixing with a blooming hope in his companion. Still, he was surprised when the nine tails held his paw out to shake his hand, "I'm Kurama, and why not. We're stuck with each other anyway."

Naruto ignored the pessimistic, and truthful, comment. Kurama couldn't fool him, he could feel his amusement now. The blond just kept smiling, eyes crinkling happily.

The alarm clock rang.

Naruto shut it off and blearily opened his eyes. _School today. Uh. _He stood up, made his bed and headed to the shower. After the shower, he slathered the scentless body lotion all over himself and put his hair up in a bun with an orange hair tie. Two wisps of hair framed his face on either side.

He headed to the wardrobe and grabbed a pair of black, knee length leggings, orange underwear and black corset. On top of that, he wore the thigh length orange qipao with the red vine motif. He tied his kunai pouch to his right thigh, the slits on either side allowed for easy access to his weapons. He grabbed the black shinobi sandals from the shelf and put them on.

Smiling happily, he opened the curtains to let the sunlight filter in and skipped to the kitchenette. Four slices of toast smothered in strawberry jam, a cup of freshly squeezed orange juice and an apple later, he was ready to face the day. He washed the dishes, grabbed his backpack, checked that the security array on the window was still active, it was, and headed out. He locked and sealed the door behind him and roof-jumped to the Academy.

He reached it and entered the classroom, all chatter ceased. Blushing, Naruto headed to his usual desk at the back, near the window. Shikamaru sat beside him, with Choji to his right.

"Troublesome," said the Nara genius.

Naruto looked at him weirdly. Nothing 'troublesome' had happened. For the shadow user anyway, Naruto found his classmates' stares plenty troublesome.

"Naruto-baka!" yelled Sakura, looking like an enraged bull.

"What did I do?!" _I haven't even asked her out! Not that I ever will again._

**Who's the harpy?**

Naruto startled, _Kurama?_

**Yes kit?**

_How can I hear you?_

**We shook hands yesterday, I can see through your eyes now too.**

_Does it mean you can hear all my thoughts?!_He tried not to freak out, but this was slightly creepy.

**No. I can only hear them if you direct them at me, like you're doing now.**

_Ah, okay then._

While they were conversing, the pink menace stalked to his seat and tried to hit him. Naruto dodged, everyone gaped. _Oi, Original may have been a masochist, but I'm not._

"What the hell do you want? I haven't even asked you out!" _Where's Iruka when you need him?_

"What are you doing dressed like that?!"

"None of your business, harpy." He snapped.

"Why you…" she tried to hit him again, but she stopped.

"Shadow Possession Jutsu, complete," drawled Shikamaru. "Oi, Ino! Come and get your friend. I think she needs a crash course on shinobi culture."

"She's my rival, Shikamaru. But you're right." Ino grabbed her frenemy and dragged her to the other side of the classroom. They immediately started whispering furiously, Ino actually seemed to be scolding Sakura.

"What the hell?" _Why the hell would they intervene?! They never did before. _Naruto stared at the Nara, silently asking for an explanation.

Shikamaru noticed and sighed, "Troublesome. My cousin was born in the wrong body too."

The blond frowned, "I wasn't." Smelling the boy's confusion, he explained, "I'm a boy. I just like to cross-dress."

"Well, that's fine too."

Choji nodded and said, "Don't worry, Naruto. No one from a shinobi clan will care."

By the time lunch rolled around, Choji was proven right. The only ones who looked at him weirdly were the civilian born students, several clan kids in the lower years had actually approached him to tell him they were the same. When he told them he was a boy and just liked to cross-dress they didn't bat an eye. They just asked him what pronouns he preferred (he didn't care) and left.

_There must be something weird in the water around here._

**Why?**

_Too accepting._

**And that's a bad thing?**

_No! Just… I expected insults and bullying._

Naruto sat with Choji and Shikamaru, eating the lunch Choji had brought him, he started doing that every day once he'd realised Naruto would go hungry otherwise. _Really, Original. Sasuke is by no means your only friend. _The blond told him about his cooking lessons with Iruka and promised that he'd start bringing his own boxed lunch next week. _I should be able to make one by then. _Choji smiled and congratulated him.

"Is he teaching you how to read too?"

Naruto gaped at the Nara, "How the fuck do you know about that?"

Shikamaru smirked at his surprised expression. "I'm a genius, and you always looked confused during paper tests even when I **know** you knew the answer."

Naruto tried to hide his hurt, _I thought we were friends, if he knew, why didn't he say something?_

Shikamaru obviously noticed anyway, "Sorry, Naruto. I just didn't want to embarrass you. You're pretty touchy when someone hurts your pride."

Naruto nodded, the Nara was right. He **hated** feeling inferior. _At least it doesn't look like he noticed the sabotage, if he saw and did nothing, I'd hate him. Not that it surprises me, I started two years early and in those two years they managed to teach Original the wrong things and put him off school forever. By the time the Konoha 11 started, I was already dead last and skipped school more often than not. The sabotage also dwindled, it wasn't really necessary anymore and Iruka would have noticed any blatant antagonism. Sneaky bastards. _Naruto had to give credit where credit was due, Tsubasa and Mizuki were good strategists. Too bad they never expected him to snitch, or be believed, most likely.

Too caught in his thoughts, Naruto didn't notice Ino and Sakura approaching until they stood right in front of him, "What do you want?" Naruto didn't care if he sounded rude, Pinky had tried to hit him! Twice!

Sakura blushed, anyone else might mistake it for embarrassment, but Naruto could smell the anger wafting off her.

"I'm sorry," she said shily, "it's just, I was raised by civilians, you see and… I'm just not used to things like this. I acted rashly and hurt you, I'm sorry. Now that I think about it, it's very brave of you to come out like this."

Naruto stared at her, fascinated. _Kurama, do you smell that?_

**Yeah, kit.**The fox sounded just as fascinated.

Every time she hesitated or apologized, the anger in her scent spiked. When she called him 'brave' disgust was mixed in, but nothing on her face gave it away. She looked **really **sorry and remorseful, but her scent betrayed her. _She's likely going to be on my team, best not piss her off by pointing it out._

"Sure, I understand. Apology accepted."

Sakura faked a relieved smile, but her scent soured. She grabbed Ino by the hand and dragged her away. The blond girl waved at him as they left and Naruto waved back, the Yamanaka had smelled happy and relieved the whole time. She obviously didn't know her friend was lying. _So much for the Yamanaka being talented in psychology. _The Biju laughed.

"Why did you lie?"

Naruto stared at him, wide eyed, "Again, how the **fuck **did you know?"

Choji was staring at his childhood friend too, just as confused as the blond.

"I know you," he simply said.

"What is that supposed to mean?" The lazy boy didn't answer, Naruto huffed and answered the question, "She didn't mean anything of what she said. I just decided to spare myself the trouble and not say anything. Everyone would think **I **lied anyway." He couldn't help the bitterness in his voice at the end.

"I'd believe you, and so would Choji. Kiba and Hinata too." Choji nodded in agreement.

"Well, that's true I guess." _I have more friends than I thought. Though I really need to talk to Hinata. I'd like to be friends with her someday, but I can't do that if she's crushing on me. Especially since I'll never feel the same._

"How did you know?" asked Shikamaru.

"Uh?" _why is he so talkative today? _"I smelled it."

"Like an Inuzuka?" asked Choji.

"Don't know. I can just smell people's emotions and other stuff. Sakura felt angry and disgusted the whole time. She just apologized because Ino made her."

_Do I have better senses because of you?_

**Yes, you're my Jinchuuriki after all and so was your mother.**

_What does my mother have to do with it?_

**My chakra affected you while you were still in the womb. Your whiskers and increased senses come from that. The chakra sensing is an Uzumaki thing and your high healing rate comes from being my Jinchuuriki.**

_Wow. Did mom know? _

**No. If she had known that my chakra would affect you, she likely wouldn't have had kids, for fear I'd possess them or something.**

Naruto ignored the bitterness in his Biju's words, he had a right to be angry. _Controlled by a crazy Uchiha, sealed away twice, then freed and brainwashed by another crazy Uchiha and sealed for the third time after having half his chakra ripped out. No wonder he's bitter, everyone still thinks he's a monster when he's just a victim. _He thought about how Kurama had tried to kill him and killed his parents once free from the Sharingan, to see if it bothered him. It didn't. _They were sealing him away, in his position, I would have done the same._

**How can you…**

With a start, Naruto realised he'd been thinking to Kurama. He waited, to see if the fox would say anything further. Nothing came.

Someone was shaking his shoulder, he looked around and realised the bell must have rung, everyone was heading back to class. He ignored Shikamaru's and Choji's worried looks and headed back to class.

* * *

The Academy ended at 4.30 p.m., when the final bell rang, Iruka asked him to stay back.

"What is it, sensei? Did you find a taijutsu teacher for me?"

"I haven't yet. I was planning to get Kotetsu to teach you, but after yesterday I don't think you'd like that, am I right?"

Naruto nodded, emphatically. Request from Iruka-sensei or not, he refused to be trained by someone who broke into his house. _Although Kakashi will do the same thing, but he's Kakashi. _

Iruka sighed, "Then I need to find someone else."

"Is that what you wanted to say?" _Couldn't he have told me tonight? _

"No, did you forget you had an appointment with Hokage-sama today?"

Naruto blushed to the tips of his ears. He'd forgotten all about it, _and I planned to make him spill the beans. _Iruka face palmed while Naruto went to rub the back of his head sheepishly, before stopping himself. _Right, better not mess up my hair bun. _Naruto thanked his teacher for the reminder and sneaked out the back, he wanted to avoid the front courtyard where the parents picked up their children. He wasn't in the mood to deal with their insults.

He jumped on the roof of the closest building outside the Academy gates and roof hopped to the Hokage Tower. He sensed only the Third and his usual ANBU guards in the office so he jumped on the window sill and knocked on the wooden frame. He could feel the guards' chakra spike then settle. _Looks like I startled them, pussies. _Kurama snickered, the blond hadn't even bothered hiding his chakra, not that he knew how. _Another thing to learn, I guess._

He jumped off the window seal and smiled at the old man, "Iruka-sensei said you wanted to see me."

"I did. I must say, Naruto, you look really pretty today." Hokage-jiji was smiling too.

Naruto blushed and thanked him. _I really need to stop blushing._

"Sit please," he pointed to a green padded chair in front of his desk. Naruto sat down, and waited, the Third looked serious, "I'm sorry, Naruto." Naruto startled, Iruka **had** said the man was sorry, but he never expected him to actually **say** it. "I did you a great disservice by not noticing Tsubaki's and Mizuki's sabotage. I apologise." Konoha's military dictator bowed his head in sorrow.

Naruto waved his hands around frantically, "Don't lower your head, Jiji. I never told you, I didn't want to look like a cry-baby and I was too embarrassed to say I couldn't read nor write properly. I should've told you."

"You should have. I'm sorry that you didn't feel like you would come to me. I would've never judged you."

_Oh no, I won't let him put the blame on me! _"Judge me, maybe not. But you lied to me." His tone was accusing, he knew, but he was so hurt. Jiji always said he could tell him anything, then turned around and lied to his face.

"I never lied to you, Naruto." He sounded confused, Naruto could smell the hurt, but no guilt. _Bastard._

"You did. Did you know I have enhanced senses?"

Confused by the sudden change of topic, the old man shook his head. He hadn't known.

Naruto stood up, placed his hands on the desk and looked him straight in the eyes, "That means, Hokage-sama" the Jinchuuriki ignored the man's flinch at the 'sama', "that I can see better, hear better, smell better and my healing factor is magnified."

The Third still looked confused, so Naruto decided to explain further, "I can hear them calling me 'demon' behind my back, I **know **people don't heal like I do!"

He waited, to see if he took this chance to finally tell him the truth. Realising he wouldn't, he kept going, "I asked you why people hated me, remember that?" Jiji nodded, Naruto took a deep breath, "you said you didn't know," another nod, "you lied. I could **smell** your **guilt**!"

The Third tried to talk, but Naruto was on a roll. "You expect me to come to you, to tell you the teachers hate me and try to fail me, when you never tell me **why**! Why do they **hate** me?! Why do they call me a **demon**?! Why would I come to you, when you keep **lying**!"

Naruto was heaving, his cheeks flushed red with anger, tears trailing down his cheeks. He rubbed at his eyes, and whispered, "Am I the Kyuubi?"

"What?! Why would you think that?" yelled the shocked Third.

"Let's see." He held his thumb up. "I'm born on October 10th." A second finger extended from his fist. "Everyone calls me a demon." Another finger and he pushed his hand towards the old man's face, sarcasm dripping from his words, "I heal faster than normal people and have better senses." A raised eyebrow, "What **else **am I (_Original_)supposed to think?"

Naruto took a deep breath to calm himself and sat back down. He gazed expectantly at the elderly man. _Will you tell me the truth now?_ The Third sighed heavily, sadness in his scent, he dropped his chin on his crossed fingers and stared at the blond child. Naruto held his gaze, he wouldn't back down. Not from this.

"Is that really what you think?" the Hokage clearly hoped he was exaggerating.

Naruto nodded, "That, or Kyuubi's actually my dad."

The Third spluttered, Naruto could smell his indignation.

_Original had an overactive imagination, what did he expect?_

**Did he really think I was his father?** Kurama sounded contemplative, like he didn't know how to react.

_Yeah. He didn't like thinking about it, but his logic was that he'd remember being you. Plus, a worker at the orphanage once read a story about a half-demon kid, so…_

**I'm not a demon.**

_He didn't know that. Most don't._

"Well, then. I think it's high time I tell you the truth."

Naruto smiled at his surrogate grandfather, the old man smiled back. He touched a corner of his desk and a chakra pulsed enclosed the office in a bubble. _What was that?!_

**Privacy seals.**

"First though, I need you to understand, what I'm about to tell you is an S-rank secret. No one can know." The Hokage looked serious, almost menacing.

Naruto ignored it, "Really? It's supposed to be a secret?" sarcasm dripped from his words. _Every adult knows and they're not subtle. Idiots._

The Third didn't budge, Naruto sighed and nodded, he'd keep the secret. The man smiled, but quickly became serious. "In the Academy, you're taught that the Yondaime killed the Kyuubi. That's not true." He waited for the blonde's reaction, but he just gazed at him, waiting. "Biju can't be killed."

"Biju?" he asked, fake curious.

**You know what we are.**

_Yes, but I'm not supposed to._

"Biju are tailed beasts. There are nine of them: the Ichibi, the Nibi, the Sanbi, the Yonbi, the Gobi, the Rokubi, the Nanabi and the Hachibi. The Kyuubi is the strongest of the nine." He explained.

Naruto nodded to show he understood. _Are you really the strongest? Or do you just have more chakra?_

**Having bigger chakra pools means being stronger.**

_Being smart and skilled are also necessary to win a fight. Strength isn't everything._

Kurama grumbled, but grudgingly admitted, **Chōmei is the trickiest, while Matatabi is the smarter. Myself excluded, obviously. **

_Very modest, Kurama. _Teased the Jinchuuriki. _Will you tell me about them?_

Kurama hesitated. Then sighed, **Yes. It will be nice to talk about them after so long.**

_Do you miss them? _

The fox stayed silent for so long, Naruto thought he wouldn't answer. **I do.** It was barely a whisper, like his Biju didn't want to be heard.

Naruto smiled sadly. _Just wait, Kurama. You'll meet them again, one day._

A throat clearing caught his attention. Naruto sheepishly looked up at the worried Hokage. "I'm fine, Jiji. Just trying to wrap my head around there being more beasts like Kyuubi out there." The blonde internally winced at the 'beasts. He apologized to his tenant, but, considering his chuckles, the fox just seemed amused.

The old man nodded, understanding. "Well, as I was saying, Biju can't be killed. Only sealed away in a container. Yondaime-sama was a seal master, so he succeeded in sealing the fox. He sacrificed his life" _and mine _"to protect the village by imprisoning the monster." **Who are you calling a monster?!** "However, the Kyuubi is the strongest of the Biju, only a person can hold it back, specifically, a newborn. You were the only one born that day."

Naruto thought back to all the discrimination Original went through, tears came to his eyes. "So, I really am a demon."

Jiji surged forward, leaning over the desk, he grabbed the child by his shoulders and forced him to look into his eyes. "Listen here, Naruto. You're not a demon. You're a child, an innocent child with a huge burden. Yondaime-sama wanted Konoha to see you as a hero. The warden that holds back a terrible evil, protecting this village every day. He believed in you, and so do I."

"But they hate me." he let the tears he was holding back fall. _I was never this good at lying._

**You may be trying to separate yourself from the Original, but you have his memories. Everything he went through, you did too. He had years to come to terms with Konoha's hatred, you didn't. You'll be fine after a good cry.**

_You're probably right. I'll deal with it tonight. _Naruto rubbed away his tears, embarrassed.

Sarutobi looked sad. Naruto's nose wrinkled, remorse smelled like decaying flowers. "I'm sorry to say that I overestimated their goodwill. When I announced you as the new Jinchuuriki, they didn't react well. I made your status an S-rank secret to ensure their prejudice didn't pass to the next generation."

"Fat load of good, that did. They hate me anyway; their parents say I'm a monster and they listen." He didn't bother hiding the accusation in his voice, it was the man's naivety that made his life hell. If he'd just used his common sense, realised that Konoha would never accept a Jinchuuriki so soon after the attack, his life could've been better.

The man seemed to understand, because he wilted, overwhelmed by guilt. Naruto wrinkled his nose. _Bleh, guilt smells so acrid. _Naruto felt sorry, for the man, naïve or not, it was admirable how he still saw the best in people after participating in three wars. "I'll forgive you, one day. Just not now."

The Third nodded, relieved. Naruto almost felt guilty about crushing that, "Is Kyuubi my dad?"

**What are you plotting?**

Jiji spluttered, "Why do you still think that?!"

_I want him to tell me about my parents. _"That told me **I'm **not the Kyuubi, but don't think I didn't notice how you didn't tell me if he's my father or not."

"How would that even work?! He's a giant fox."

**Yeah, kit. How?**

Naruto calmly answered them both, "If he's a demon fox, he's a kitsune. Kitsune are known to transform into humans and seduce people."

**I'm not a demon, I'm a sentient chakra construct.**

_I doubt he knows that. Even if he does, I'm not supposed to._

"Kyuubi isn't a kitsune, he's made entirely of chakra, so he can't have kids." Sarutobi sounded exasperated by his line of thinking.

**Looks like he knows, kit.**

_Can you really not have kids?_

**Of course I can't. I don't need to breathe, sleep or eat, much less reproduce.**

_Ah. I thought you slept while Original was younger._

**I didn't. Your father stole my Yin chakra, I was meditating to attempt to recover it. Having only Yang chakra makes me too unstable. It's dangerous for you too.**

_Is that why if I use your chakra my skin will start burning and falling off?_

**Future knowledge, eh? Yeah, most likely. It's also harder to control.**

_How much did you get back? And how?_

**About a tail's worth. I need to send a tendril of chakra outside the seal and gather nature chakra to stabilise me. Hence meditating. It's a slow-going process, the seal keeps me from doing much.**

_Would it help if I meditated too?_

**I could send more chakra out if you did. But someone would notice. You'd need chakra dampening seals which you don't know how to make and your sensei would be suspicious if you asked for some.**

_Do you know how to make them? You were sealed in two Uzumaki before me, Fuinjutsu was kind of their thing._

**No, their seal didn't let me see through their eyes like yours does.**

"Are you alright, Naruto?" Sarutobi's concerned voice reminded him of where he was.

"Yeah, yeah. It's just a lot to take in." _I need to stop getting distracted while talking to Kurama. _

The Hokage seemed to accept this. Naruto sighed and looked around. _Looks like he's not going to tell me about my parents. Oh well, I knew it was a long shot. _Something on the left wall caught his eye. Naruto stared confused, it was just an empty spot of wall beside a bookshelf, nothing special. Something though…something didn't feel right. He focused on his chakra sense and 'pushed' it towards the wall… nothing. He focused harder, his instincts told him something was amiss and he trusted those instincts, they'd never led Original wrong before. There! A chakra field, waving in and out of focus.

**Genjutsu. Good, but you can break it.**

_Original was dead last. I can't just suddenly start breaking Genjutsu. I don't even know how!_

Kurama huffed. **True.**

He noticed the Hokage staring suspiciously, he knew he couldn't fool him, so he just asked, "What's over there, Jiji? I can feel chakra."

The Hokage spluttered, panicked (_For a ninja, he gets surprised way too easily._), "You can feel that?!"

"Yeah. I never really cared, but now I'm curious." He did have vague memories of Original wondering about the wall and getting distracted before he could ask. _Original sure had a short attention span._

"It's where I hide my tobacco. My medic is trying to make me quit, so I have to hide it."

_Lie. Tobacco doesn't warrant that much panic. Besides, it's in the secret compartment beneath his desk. _"You should listen, Jiji. Smoking isn't good for you." _Still, it's likely none of my business._

"Yes, yes." He smiled indulgently at the blond.

Naruto just huffed and stood. "Well, thank you for telling me the truth. I'm gonna go home now, it's late and Iruka-sensei is coming at 6 to help me cook dinner and teach me how to read." He headed to the window and climbed on the sill. "Bye," he waved.

"Goodbye, Naruto-kun." The old man smiled and waved back.

Naruto jumped out the window and roof hopped to his apartment. He could feel the privacy barrier dissipate behind him. He reached his apartment complex and jumped back down to street level. _I'm going to learn tree climbing. My window sill is too small to step on, but if I learn to stick to the wall I can enter through the window. How cool is that?_

**Bah, childish. **

Naruto ignored the insult. _This is my second chance, I'm going to be as childish as I want, propriety be damned! _

Kurama chuckled, amused, but said nothing further.

Naruto took the stairs two at a time to reach his apartment, this time there were no intruders. _I still need to prank Kotetsu. _He unsealed and unlocked the door and closed it behind him. The alarm clock read 5.30 p.m., _we spoke for an hour?! Damn. _He threw himself on the bed and stared at the ceiling. _What to do in half an hour? _Grinning, Naruto sat up. _Revenge time!_

He grabbed his remaining prank supplies and headed out. He spread his chakra sense as far as it would go. Kotetsu wasn't in range. He jumped on a roof and ran around the village, hoping to find him. On the opposite side of Konoha, he felt Kotetsu's ghostly chakra exiting an apartment. He waited for the man to body flicker away and landed on his victim's window sill. He easily deactivated all traps (_Incompetent much?_) and jumped in.

He used the pink paint to write a message on the wall: BREAKING AND ENTERING IS A CRIME IN KONOHA, NINJA OR NOT. _That lawbook sure was useful. Wait… _He added: YOU SCARED ME, NOW WE'RE EVEN. _Hopefully, he'll realise I'm right and not feel particularly vengeful. _He set up a trap above the door, when Kotetsu came back he would get caught in the rope, splashed in pink paint and repeatedly slapped by the rubber chicken. All while hanging from the ceiling by his foot. He now had 11 smoke bombs and half a meter of rope. _Should I set up another prank_? _Nah. _He was about to leave, but turned around, inked his brush in paint and wrote: THANK YOU FOR THE CUPBOARD, COUNTER, IRON AND IRONING BOARD. Satisfied, he jumped out the window, redid the traps and left.

Iruka-sensei was waiting for him in front of his apartment. Naruto led him in, "What are we making today, sensei?"

"We're making fried rice. How was your talk with the Hokage?"

"I'm a Jinchuuriki." Naruto ignored Iruka's spluttering, "Oh, and I pranked Kotetsu-san."

Iruka grabbed his shoulder and forced the blond to look at him. "Are you alright?"

Naruto almost melted at the concern in his brother figure's voice. _Feels nice to have someone who cares. _"I'm fine sensei. I'm almost relieved." Iruka gawked at him, he obviously wasn't sure whether to believe him or not. Naruto smiled at the man, "I hear them calling me demon, murderer, monster… I was born on October 10th, so I started thinking I was Kyuubi reborn. Or his kid. It's almost a relief to know I'm just his container."

Iruka hugged him tightly, "You're not a monster, Naruto. You're a wonderful, bright child who loves orange, ramen and pranks. You're my student and… my little brother." His voice sounded hoarse.

Naruto grabbed the back of his Chunin vest and hid his face in his big brother's chest, he couldn't stop the happy tears. _I love him, he's my precious person. More than old man Hokage, more than Teuchi and Ayame. _They stayed like that for a while.

Once they separated, they dried their tears and headed to the kitchen. While cooking, Naruto told him all about his little prank. Iruka was caught between pride for his trapping skills and pity for his friend. Naruto wasn't sure how the man could compliment and lecture at the same time, but he managed.

After dinner, Iruka made him read out loud from 'Chakra theory for Beginners', explaining any words or concepts he didn't know. He also forced him to take notes, correcting them and making him redo them until they were perfect. At the end of it, Naruto felt both relieved the torture was over and amazed at how many things he'd learned.

Once the teacher left, he sealed the door and window and drew the curtains. He showered, smeared body lotion all over himself (_I felt sticky for hours today, best do it at night._) and put on his pyjamas. Naruto laid down beneath the covers, checked that his alarm was set and fell asleep.

* * *

Thank you to everyone who reviewed the previous chapters. I love hearing your opinions and thoughts!

Read & Review please.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: Graduation & Shikamaru's parents**

I don't own Naruto, it belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. I'm not gaining profit from this.

This chapter isn't betaed, any mistakes are my own and English is definitely not my first language. Constructive criticism is much appreciated, flames are not.

_Naruto's thoughts_

**Emphasis**

WRITING

_Naruto talking to Kurama_

**Kurama talking to Naruto **

* * *

Today was the day. The Big Day. The day of the Graduation Exam. Naruto felt jittery, waiting for the written test to start. _I know they wanted to give everyone the chance to review, but starting the exam at 2 p.m. is just too weird._ He was wearing his sky-blue battle kimono with the dark blue obi, knee length black leggings, blue shinobi sandals and a mesh shirt. His hair was in a French braid tied off by a blue hair tie, ninja wire glinted between the blond tresses. His black kunai pouch was tied to his right leg, a pack of senbon was hidden inside a storage seal stitched on his obi, another one held his Fuinjutsu supplies. He had added a hidden pocket to all his shinobi clothes, it was meant to hold exploding tags but it was empty at the moment.

Iruka-sensei had taught him how to put seals on his clothes, he needed to immerge the thread he wanted to use in chakra infused ink, commonly known as Fuinjutsu ink, wait for it to dry and carefully sew the seal in his clothing. A pulse of chakra ensured the stitches would never come out; simply painting the seal on cloth would work too, but it could be washed away. Naruto had learned everything Iruka knew about Fuinjutsu, Kurama said it was his Uzumaki blood, there was nothing more the man could teach him. Naruto intended to ask Kakashi for tips or wait for Jiraiya to show up.

The two months had flown by, between cooking lessons with Iruka that had turned into the blond cooking dinner for both of them, to Iruka's 'torture session' in the evenings where he learned to read, write and all his theoretical classes in one go. Iruka had been unable to find him a taijutsu teacher, turns out the man didn't have that many friends other than Mizuki, so Naruto joined him for his own workout in the early morning where he learned the Academy katas and how to use his kunai, shuriken and senbon.

The biggest surprise had come when Iruka tried to teach him the Clone jutsu…

* * *

"I don't understand. You mastered tree walking and water walking. You can even fight on both surfaces; your chakra control should be good enough by now. So, why can't you make a single working clone?!"

Naruto shrugged, disappointed. _I know I have too much chakra, but he's right. I should be able to make a clone._

**I don't know why you bother. The chakra needed for this jutsu is too little, you'll never be able to make just one clone.**

_Does this mean I can make more?_

**You should. But for your exam, you need three, right?**

_I doubt they'll fail me if I make more._

"I want to try something, sensei."

"Alright," he sighed, "go ahead."

Naruto concentrated, when doing the clone jutsu, he always imagined a copy of himself, just one, standing right in front of him. This time, he thought about filling the entire clearing in clones. He kept the image in mind and placed his left hand flat on his right fist. He gathered his chakra and pushed it out through the Dog hand seal. A puff of smoke and the training ground was covered in Naruto clones.

Naruto crowed triumphantly, dancing giddily around the closest clone, "I did it! Iruka sensei, did you see?" Naruto turned around and blanched, Iruka was sitting on the ground, staring unseeing at his clones. Naruto ran to him, pawing worriedly at the man's chest, "Sensei?! Are you alright?" _Did I hurt him?_

**The clones aren't even solid, how could you have hurt him?**

_Maybe he's sick?_

Iruka grabbed Naruto's hands and smiled reassuringly, "I'm fine, Naruto-kun. More importantly, I think I figured out your problem."

"Really sensei?" _If he says too much chakra, I'll hit him._

"You have too much chakra! You'll never be able to do the Academy three, they need too little chakra for it to work for you." The Chunin looked triumphant, that look disappeared after Naruto kicked him in the shins.

"I knew that already!" he yelled incensed. "I'm a freaking Jinchuuriki, of course I have too much chakra!"

"What?! Why didn't you tell me?"

"Obviously, I thought you knew. That, and I can do the other two no problem. So why does the Clone jutsu give me so much trouble?" _Every book I read said the chakra output should be about the same, so why is this technique the only one that gives me trouble?_

**No idea. I don't use jutsu, remember?**

_Isn't the Bijūdama a jutsu?_

**No, that's shape manipulation. Like your father's Rasengan. Jutsu need hand signs, which I obviously can't do. Unless you master them, like you did Kawarimi and Henge.**

"You're right," Naruto stopped talking to Kurama and paid attention to his teacher, "you shouldn't be able to do those either. Show me."

Naruto sighed, but stood up, pulling the Chunin on his feet as well. He dispelled the illusionary clones and transformed, the Third now stood in the clearing with Iruka. A puff of smoke and a leaf stood in his place. Another puff and Naruto was back where he started.

"With hand seals, please" requested the scarred Chunin.

Naruto sighed, not seeing the point, but complied. "Satisfied sensei?"

Iruka looked flabbergasted, "Naruto, who taught you those seals?"

"Mizuki, why?"

"They're wrong."

"What? But they work!" _How can they be wrong?_

"Yeah, they really shouldn't." Iruka looked thoughtful, "Henge as the Hokage again."

Naruto did, confused. The scarred man grabbed his shoulders, then the back of his head.

"Hold still," Iruka punched his arm lightly.

Naruto's confusion was mounting. _What's the point?_

**Maybe you broke him.**

"Hold your hand out, I'm going to nick it with a kunai."

Naruto let him, he trusted the man. As soon as the kunai touched his skin, the transformation broke.

"Now Kawarimi," he ordered.

Naruto was getting frustrated by the man's silence, smirking, he switched places with his teacher. When the smoke dissipated the man looked furious.

"Naruto!" the Chunin grabbed his shoulders and shook him, "Do you know how dangerous that is? If I'd flared my chakra, I could've disrupted the technique! You could die!" The man looked frantic.

"It's only dangerous if you have more chakra than me, you don't." _Thank you, Chakra Theory for Beginners_

"How do you know?" Iruka looked unconvinced.

"I'm a chakra sensor, I can tell." Naruto decided to ignore the surprise and disbelief on the man's face. "Can you tell me what the problem is?"

"The problem, Naruto, is that your Henge is solid and you can Kawarimi further than anyone I know."

"What do you mean? Henge is a transformation, of course it's solid and I didn't go that far, just to the edge of the clearing. I can go further than that."

Iruka face palmed, "Henge is an **illusion**, not an actual transformation; Kawarimi can't be used in battle because of its short range and chakra cost."

"What chakra cost? It takes so little even **Sakura** can do it more than once."

"Yes, but that's with a log that's right beside her and weights as much as her. If she tried to go further or switch places with a leaf like you did, the chakra output would exceed her reserves."

"So, I can do it because of the hand seals Mizuki taught me? Did he invent a new jutsu while trying to sabotage me?" Naruto couldn't help but grin at the possibility. _That would be awesome, he tried to make me fail and taught me something better. _He giggled.

Iruka smiled, amused, "I doubt that. It's likely that you believed the seals would work a certain way and moulded your chakra accordingly. You thought Henge was solid, so it is. You thought Kawarimi had no limits, so it doesn't."

"I'm a genius then!" he did a happy dance.

Iruka grinned, "Yeah, you really are."

Naruto stopped, dumbstruck, _I didn't expect him to agree. _He felt a fuzzy warmth fill his chest. Giddily, he threw himself at Iruka and hugged the stuffing out of him.

* * *

… "Naruto? You alright?" Shikamaru looked concerned.

Naruto smiled sheepishly at his friend, "Sorry, just thinking about one of my morning lessons."

Shikamaru nodded, understanding. The Nara and Akimichi heirs were the only ones who knew about his lessons with Iruka, everyone else thought he'd finally started training seriously.

They turned back to the front, where Iruka was explaining the exam for the umpteenth time, "As you know, the Graduation Exam is split into four parts: theory, accuracy, taijutsu and ninjutsu. Each one is worth 25% of your overall grade. Every test has its own conditions to pass, if you fail one, you won't go to the next one and you'll fail the exam. For those who pass, your grades aren't really important, but if you're interested, you'll find them on the signboard in the corridor."

The teacher's aide, Naruto had never seen him before, gave everyone a test paper. Once everyone had one, Iruka said, "You have three hours. To pass you'll need to answer 50% of it correctly. If you cheat, you'll be kicked out. Begin."

Naruto was confident he'd pass, but he still felt nervous. He started by reading through the test, the first part was multiple questions, the second one had short answers and the last needed long answers. He chose to start with those first, then he'd do the second part, leaving the multiple-choice ones for last. History, geography, law, shinobi rules, anatomy, first aid, math, ninjutsu, taijutsu, genjutsu, chakra theory. Naruto answered all the questions, guessing with those he didn't know the answer to. He could feel a headache building in his temples and his hand was cramping from all the writing. A trickle of Kurama's chakra and he was fine again. _How can non Jinchuuriki do this? I'd be miserable._

**Didn't you take tests in your previous life?**

_I had private tutors who let me go at my own pace and tests weren't these long or hard. I mean, they knew I was going to die. Getting an education was just something to pass the time, we all knew I'd never do anything with it._

**Ah, that explains it. To answer your question, I have no idea. Looks like torture to me.**

"Put down your pens. You have 20 minutes to relax while we correct the tests."

The assistant collected the papers and formed a solid clone, Iruka did as well and they split the tests between them. Whispers filled the classroom, Sasuke was brooding, his fan club staring creepily, Sakura and Ino were arguing over who did better, Kiba was playing with Akamaru and Hinata and Shino were silent.

"You're coming to my house for dinner." said Shikamaru out of the blue.

"What?" Naruto looked behind himself, just to be sure his friend was talking to him. He pointed at himself, "Me?"

"Yes, Naru. I want you to be there to celebrate passing the exam."

"We don't know if we'll pass." Naruto ignored the Nara's glare, "Are you sure? Won't your parents dislike you springing this on them?"

"I already asked them, they said yes. Mom already met Choji, so she wants to meet you too."

Naruto raised a brow at this. "She wants to meet me?" _The village pariah?_

Shikamaru rolled his eyes, "Yes, Naru."

Naruto looked at Choji, the chubby boy smiled encouragingly. "Ok then" he shrugged.

They spent the rest of the break discussing their answers.

"Attention, please. Futaba, Sorori, Kentarou and Yugi, you fail. Everyone else, head outside."

* * *

"For the accuracy test, you'll need to hit the target 8 times out of 10 with both kunai and shuriken. At least 5 of each must hit the bullseye. For bonus points, you can show off your use of another weapon."

Each kid was called out in alphabetical order, being amongst the last, Naruto sat down and unsealed his Fuinjutsu supplies. He grabbed Fuinjutsu journal and a pencil and resealed everything else. He looked at his barrier seal, usually, barrier seals needed four tags to activate, he'd managed to create a single seal that would build a bubble shaped barrier. However, the sphere was weak and cracked easily, the chakra cost was also too high, anyone else would be able to activate it once or twice before passing out from chakra exhaustion.

Naruto lost himself in calculations and diagrams, until someone shook him out of it. He looked up and blinked owlishly, Choji was shaking him, it was his turn now. He stood and grabbed 10 kunai from his pouch, after a signal from Iruka, he threw them in quick succession, 10 out of 10, 7 of which were bullseyes. The assistant collected his weapons and gave them to Naruto with a quick smile. Surprised, Naruto hesitated to smile back. He put his kunai back in his pouch and grabbed the shuriken, 10 out of 10 with 5 bullseyes. Naruto grimaced, he hated shuriken. After that he unsealed the senbon and threw them, 10 out of 10, all bullseyes.

He collected his weapons and ignored his classmates' comments about 'showing off' and 'cheating'. Iruka silenced them with a glare and smiled proudly at his student. "Good job, Naruto-kun."

Naruto smiled back and skipped towards his friends, "Sorry, I wasn't paying attention. Who failed?"

Choji answered him, "Kurosawa and Hideki."

"Right, right." Naruto nodded sagely.

"You have no idea who they are." Stated Shikamaru.

Naruto didn't even bother denying it, not even Original had known their names, so why would he bother when he **knew **only nine teams would pass their Jōnin's test. The rest would go back to the Academy, if the Jōnin thought they had potential, or were sent to the Genin Corps and were unlikely to ever end up on the field. Well, unless a war happened, then even they would end up fighting. In peace times, they worked in administration or on D-rank missions and easy C-ranks in teams of five. It was rare, but some could be promoted to Chunin if the Genin Corps General recommended them. In recent years, Konoha had seen several getting promoted that way, the current general trained them hard. From rumours he gathered around the village, Akimichi Chōza was a hard ass who expected the best, even from those who weren't looking for a promotion and wished to remain Genin. Naruto shivered at some of the things he'd heard about the man's training methods, no wonder Gai was such a maniac. _Choji must take after his mother._

Iruka clapped his hands hard to attract everyone's attention. "Kurosawa, Hideki, you may leave. Everyone else, follow me." They headed to the far end of the training yard, where two white circles had been painted on the ground. "Split into two groups. One group will spar with Saitou, the other one with me. Your aim is to either defeat us, push us out of the circle or last for 5 minutes. Taijutsu only."

Naruto watched, curious. _They're not going to give it their all against Academy students. _He was proven right, Iruka fought harder than that. Still, even if he was holding back, no one managed to defeat him. Shino's taijutsu obviously wasn't his strong suit, but he managed to last the allotted time. Choji pushed Iruka out of the circle, even without his family jutsu the kid was stronger than average. Sakura fell on the ground exhausted and bruised once the 5 minutes were up. Hinata easily lasted 5 minutes, even without using the Byakugan, the shy kunoichi could give devastating hits. _Too bad she keeps hesitating. _Kiba was amongst the best of the class in taijutsu, so he easily managed to push Iruka out of the circle. _Wish Iruka hadn't gone easy on him, hate the gloating. _

Shikamaru tricked Iruka into stepping out of the circle by pretending to give up as soon as the match started, when Iruka grabbed him to stop him from stepping outside the Nara had used a burst of chakra augmented strength to throw him over his shoulder and outside the circle. Naruto grinned, amused by the dumbstruck expression on Iruka's face. Sasuke, brooding-genius-extraordinary, almost knocked out Iruka, but the man upped his game and the Uchiha was unable to push him out. The avenger looked unsatisfied. _Judging from his scowl, he didn't notice Iruka went harder on him. Idiot. _

Finally, it was his turn. He entered the ring and formed the confrontation seal, Iruka answered in kind. Naruto took a deep breath and slipped into the ready position, knees slightly bent, arms at chest height, the right one slightly closer to his body. He waited for the Chunin to make the first move. Iruka smiled approvingly, then he suddenly sprang forward in a burst of motion. Naruto dodged right, Iruka threw a right hook. Naruto pushed redirected the hit with his left forearm, seeing how Iruka was wide open, he threw a punch at the man's solar plexus. Iruka jumped back, Naruto overbalanced and threw himself on the ground to avoid Iruka's elbow strike. He threw his hands forward to stop his fall and used them as a pivot to swipe his legs and trip Iruka up. The Chunin jumped to avoid his legs but Naruto grabbed the man's left leg with his knees and pulled. Iruka almost fell on top of him but he rolled away and climbed on the teacher's back. He twisted his arms behind his back and held on while the bigger man tried to buck him off.

Iruka stopped fighting, "The five minutes are up, Naruto. You won." The pride in the man's scent was unmistakable.

Naruto jumped up and whooped, "I won, I won!"

Still jumping around like a demented bunny, the blond Uzumaki threw himself at Choji and Shikamaru. "Did you see?!"

"We saw Naru," wheezed the Nara, "get off now. You're heavy."

"Choji doesn't think I'm heavy," countered the Jinchuuriki.

"Choji's stronger than me," rebutted the shadow user.

Naruto huffed but stood and helped them both up. He ignored the Akimichi laughing at his pout and was content with hanging all over Shikamaru's back and watching Ino get thrashed. The Yamanaka was holding up, but her diet and lack of training were a serious disadvantage. She lasted the required amount of time and fell over, heaving.

"Well, Imawari, Kaitou, you're out." Called Iruka's assistant.

"All of you, congratulations on making it this far." Iruka smiled proudly at everyone, "Now, it's time for the ninjutsu portion of the exam. Back to class everyone."

Naruto let go of Shikamaru and followed his classmates back inside. He sat in his usual place at the back with Choji and Shikamaru. Kiba joined them and they talked about the awesome missions they'd get as a Genin. _Wait until his first D-rank, he'll be singing a different tune._ Kurama laughed along with him.

One by one, they were called to another class where the testing took place. Naruto wished luck to all his friends before they left until it was just him, Ino and a civilian kid left.

"Uzumaki Naruto."

Naruto followed the Chunin, whose name he didn't remember, into the testing room.

"Now Naruto, switch places with one of those," Iruka pointed to the corner behind the blond.

Naruto turned around and sure enough, there was a pile of logs behind him. He switched places with a log and then switched back. All without hand seals, the assistant, _Saitou_, looked flabbergasted. Without waiting for instructions, Naruto transformed into Iruka. He undid the transformation and formed three shadow clones, without hand seals. Saitou didn't seem to know they were solid clones (_He looks like he'd faint if he knew_.) while Iruka looked amused and proud. Naruto was really grateful at the man for asking the Hokage permission to teach him the technique. _His face when I created 20 clones in one go, or when I learned to do it with no hand seals…_

**Springing that on him was a great prank. I thought he'd faint.** Laughed the giant fox.

"Congratulations, Naruto. You're now a proud shinobi of Konoha." Iruka handed him a Konoha hitai-ate.

Naruto dispelled his clones in a puff of smoke and eagerly tied the headband around his neck like a choker. He hugged Iruka's neck, thanking him profusely. "Can we celebrate tomorrow?"

"Why not now?" asked a confused Iruka.

"Shika invited me to his house. So, tomorrow at lunch?"

"Of course! I'm glad you have such good friends, Naruto. See you tomorrow."

"Bye sensei!" yelled Naruto, running out the door. He didn't want Shika to leave without him.

Outside, parents were celebrating their children's new Genin status. Naruto ignored the happy families, the malicious whispers when he walked near them, 'how could they let him pass?'. He'd finally become a Genin, he refused to let these bastards ruin it for him. He saw the side of a pineapple head near his swing, he took a running start and jumped on Shikamaru's back. Surprisingly, the Nara didn't fall, he just grabbed the blonde's legs and wrapped them around his waist. Naruto pouted, _he's too used to this._

"Hello, Naru. Looks like you passed." Chuckled the Nara heir.

"Yeah, you too. Congrats." he said while toying with the other boy's headband on his left arm.

"You must be Uzumaki Naruto, we've heard so much about you." Gushed Nara Yoshino.

Naruto couldn't stop an instinctive flinch. _What did they hear? _He tried to pretend she wasn't making him uncomfortable, "All good things, I hope."

"Of course. Shika-kun doesn't have many friends." She said conspiratorially.

Naruto giggled, he could see Shikamaru's ears reddening. He hugged him tighter and nuzzled his nose in his friend's neck. "Don't worry Shika, I don't have many friends either. Just you and Choji." _And you, Kurama._

The Biju grumbled, embarrassed by the sentiment.

"Not Kiba?"

"Kiba and I don't hang out much since I stopped skipping class. That, and he doesn't like hanging out with girls." He tightened his grip on Shika, frustrated by dog boy's pig-headedness.

"But you aren't," he stated.

"I know. But he says that as long as I dress and act like a girl, I'm a girl. He even started using female pronouns. I mean, I don't mind, but it bothers me that he treats me differently. You saw him today, usually he baits me and we argue, but he was **freaking **polite!"

Shikamaru just hummed and patted his legs. Naruto sighed, _at least Sasuke's behaviour didn't change._

**Likely because your behaviour towards him didn't change. You're still his rival and not a fangirl. Though he does respect you more now.**

_Of course he does, I'm stronger now._

**You won't be dead last, are you sure you'll still be on Team 7?**

_Not a 100%. Sasuke will be on Kakashi's team for sure and me being a Jinchuuriki, it's logical for me to be on a team with the only Sharingan users in Konoha. Also, I doubt I did anything to affect Sakura's top kunoichi status. Speaking of which…_

He poked Shikamaru's cheek, "Did you see the grades?"

"Yeah, overall Sasuke's first, Sakura second, Ino's third, Hinata's fourth, you're fifth. Aburame Shino is sixth, then Choji, Kiba and me."

Naruto punched him on the head, "Why the hell are you that low?! I know you hate effort but you could've at least beaten dog-breath." He growled, "Lazy ass."

"Troublesome." mumbled the lazy pineapple head.

Naruto laid his head back on his friend's shoulder and ignored the Nara couple chuckling beside them. He also pretended not to see Shikaku's fascinated gaze. _Intense. _The rest of the walk was silent.

As soon as they passed through the Nara compound's gate, Naruto jumped down from Shikamaru's back and grabbed his hand. They entered a Japanese style house close to the edge of the Nara forest, Naruto glimpsed a deer gazing amongst the trees. They took off their shoes in the entrance hall and, while the parents headed to the kitchen, they went to Shikamaru's room.

His bedroom had an en suite bathroom, a bed, a closet, a bedside table and a bookshelf. "Very minimalistic."

Shikamaru threw himself on the bed, ""I don't need anything else."

Naruto glared at him, hands on his hips, "Shouldn't we help your mum with dinner?"

"You're a guest. If you tried to help, mum would feel like a horrible host."

Naruto looked around, uncomfortable. "What are we supposed to do then?"

"Nothing, mum already prepared dinner, she just needs to reheat it."

Right on cue, Yoshino yelled, "Shikamaru! Get your lazy ass down here!"

Naruto covered his ears in pain. _Damn, what a pair of lungs._

**Worse than the pink harpy. **Winced Kurama.

Shikamaru looked at him in concern, "You alright Naru?"

The Jinchuuriki removed his hands from his ears and listened for a moment, he could hear Yoshino walking away from the stairs and indistinct mumbles from Shikaku. "No permanent damage," he joked.

Shikamaru grabbed the blonde's hand and dragged him down the stairs. _He's being less lazy than usual. Wonder why?_

Kurama guffawed, **You're as blind as a bat.**

Naruto furrowed his brows. _No, I'm not._ The Biju just kept laughing.

Naruto decided to ignore the enigmatic fox and concentrate on making a good impression. _Don't want Shikaku to regret not telling his son to stay away from me. _He then remembered how he'd spent the whole way here ignoring them and being carried by Shikamaru and silently despaired. _Too late for that._

"Don't yell mum. Naruto's ears are sensitive." Naruto sniffed the air, he couldn't identify the emotion clouding Shika's scent.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Naruto-kun. I didn't know." She sounded guilty, like she was at fault for not knowing.

"No problem. Sakura yells louder than that." **Bloody Banshee**, agreed Kurama.

Yoshino smiled at him, relieved. "Sit, sit. I made tonkatsu. Hope you like it."

"Never ate it, but it looks yummy." Naruto licked his lips; the scent of the fried pork was making his mouth water. Naruto sat down in front of Shikaku, Shikamaru to his left, in front of his mother.

"Itadakimasu." They chorused.

No one spoke at first. Naruto was just beginning to relax when Shikaku asked "I heard you were dead last. You must have trained hard to get fifth place."

Naruto swallowed. "Yeah, I trained with Iruka-sensei every day. It's not like I was dead last by choice, you know? Mizuki-sensei and Tsubasa-sensei taught me the wrong things or not at all. So, I just gave up and started skipping class, I didn't even bother trying anymore. Iruka-sensei had to teach me how to read and write, you know."

Yoshino looked indignant while her husband looked even more interested than before. "You caught up with the entire Academy program in two months?" he sounded amazed.

"Naru's pretty smart when he tries. He created his own technique based on the Henge." Shikamaru sounded proud. Naruto puffed up his chest, happy at his friend's compliment.

Shikaku glanced strangely at his son. "What made you suddenly decide to change?" he asked the Uzumaki.

"I looked at my calendar and saw I had two months before Graduation." He said in a deadpan voice.

Everyone sweatdropped. The rest of the meal passed with Shikamaru and Naruto trying to guess what team the blond would end up on, the new Ino-Shika-Cho formation was a sure thing, and the missions they'd be going on. Naruto delighted in coming up with more and more outlandish ideas to make Shikamaru laugh. From the amused and slightly sadistic glances exchanged between the Nara couple, they had no intention of warning them about the horror of D-ranks.

After dinner, Naruto offered to help clean up, but Yoshino refused him saying it was late. _It's not like anyone's waiting for me._

"I'll accompany him. Genin or not, you're too young to walk home alone at this hour."

Naruto thanked the Nara Clan Head, choosing not to point out the chakra signature hiding in the trees outside. _Looks like Inu is still protecting me._

**Don't know why you're surprised. The man has been following you on and off since your ANBU guard was disbanded.**

_True, I really hope I'm right and it's Kakashi. Otherwise, I don't know who it could be._

Naruto grabbed his shoes by the door and put them on. He walked out, Shikaku a silent shadow beside him.

**Does it matter?**

_I want to thank him, whoever he is. My life would've been a hundred times worse without him._ He remembered men with spicy scents (Kurama had told him it meant lust) being dragged in the darkness of an alleyway; drunk civilians breaking into his apartment only to meet a furious assassin. Making the mistake of going to the Kyuubi Festival and being attacked by a mob just to suddenly find himself safe in his apartment. He shared the memories with Kurama, willing him to understand.

**Alright kid. If it's not Kakashi, we'll find him and thank him. Even if we have to scrounge every building in Konoha!**

_We?_

**Having an insane Jinchuuriki would've been awful. Just look at Shukaku! **

_How do you know Shukaku's insane?_

**Kushina met his Jinchuuriki once, the guy was bonkers and from the feel of my brother's chakra, so was he. **

Naruto could feel the sadness and longing from the Biju when he spoke about his brother. He shook himself out of it and focused on leading the way to his apartment. Shikaku remained silent the whole way, the man just gave him a small nod at his door and left him there. _Weird guy, _he mused.

Shrugging, he unlocked the door and locked it behind him. He showered, put on the body lotion and his pyjamas. He checked the security on the door and window and closed the curtains. He double checked that Inu had stopped following him, he had, and grabbed the chakra dampening seals he'd designed from the loose floorboard under his bed and placed one in each corner of the main room, a pulse of chakra activated them. Naruto could feel a warm, golden chakra in the walls, luckily, only the activator could feel this, others would just sense his initial chakra spike and nothing else. The drawback was, that if a sensor paid attention to his apartment, they would feel his chakra disappear after the burst and become suspicious. No ANBU had knocked at his door to demand explanations yet, so he was safe.

He sat down crossed leg on the bed and waited. He didn't need to **really **meditate for Kurama to recover his Yin chakra, he just had to stay still and relaxed while letting the Biju do his thing. He could feel a burning trickle of red-hot chakra flowing from his stomach to his whole body. It hurt, like bathing in too hot water. Slowly, he got used to it until he could ignore the sensation. Kurama's chakra reached outside his body, mingling with the natural chakra contained inside his room. There wasn't much, doing this outside would be better, but the risk of someone chancing upon them was too high.

He could feel Kurama purring happily, giddy with the sensation of his chakra wrapped around the natural chakra in the air. From what Naruto understood, the scientific explanation went right over his head, Kurama used his chakra to absorb the natural chakra around him and then used it to balance his Yang chakra, Yin chakra was created as a result. Naruto could tell that Kurama had missed this, more than the wind playing with his fur, more than the sensation of solid earth beneath his paws, Kurama had missed feeling nature's chakra all around him.

Choosing to ignore his partner's antics, he thought back to when he'd told Kurama about the future to come…

* * *

… "So, what you're telling me is that Konoha will get invaded during the next Chunin exam, your teammate will receive a cursed hickey and he'll join a snake paedophile. All to become strong enough to kill his brother who's already dying and was just following orders. After discovering this, he'll join an organization of S-ranked missing-nin hell bent on capturing us Biju to control the world. One that is being manipulated by the crazy Uchiha, the same one who controlled me before and was your father's student. The madman wants to become the Ten-Tails' Jinchuuriki to project his Mangekyo on the Moon and put the world in a genjutsu. This guy is being manipulated by a plant hybrid that wants to free Kaguya. If that happens, we'll have an army of zombies and a chakra eating goddess to deal with. Did I miss anything?"

"I don't think so," mused the blond Uzumaki.

"First then, you can't Kawarimi with Sasuke and get the Curse Mark, I can't burn it off, absorb it or take it off like in fanfiction. If you get the mark, it will stay there unless you can remove it yourself. I don't know about you, but I refuse to share a body with a piece of that man's soul."

"Alright then, I'll remove it from my list. I'll just have to figure out how to remove the Mark from Sasuke."

"Just because he's not marked, it doesn't mean he'll stay." Kurama reminded him, "Your best bet is to remind him about all the strong shinobi Konoha created, his brother included, and form stronger ties with him. From what you told me, Original and Sasuke weren't really best friends, just lonely kids hanging on to a twisted relationship because they didn't know any better."

Naruto wanted to disagree, their friendship had been beautiful to watch, but he couldn't deny that in real life a friendship like that rang all kinds of alarm bells.

Seeing that he was in agreement, Kurama went on, "You're not Original, so being able to talk your enemies into becoming your friends," the fox sounded disbelieving even as he said that, "is off the table. You'll have to be stronger than them and **kill** them. Defeated foes can come back, dead ones don't."

Naruto nodded to show he agreed.

The Biju nodded back, satisfied. "The best thing to do is kill Zetsu and destroy the Gedo Statue before he frees Kaguya. That way we'll only have to deal with Akatsuki, Obito and Madara."

"I think we should let the Shinobi Alliance deal with it," interrupted Naruto. Seeing the fox's questioning glance, he explained, "If the villages become allies, there will be no more shinobi wars. No wars means no need for human weapons. It will be easier to free your siblings then, the Kages are less likely to throw a fit if there's no more need for Jinchuuriki. I'll become Hokage and convince everyone that it's the best decision for a continued 'peace'." He mimed air quotes.

"You don't seem to think it will last."

"Even in my world, war happened, and we didn't have ninjas or chakra. Even if shinobi cease to exist, I don't doubt that some Daimyō or others will start a war to increase their power. Peace never lasts, but I hope to make it last longer than a decade or two."

"Where will we go once we're free? I doubt we'll be allowed to roam around."

The sudden change of subject startled the blond. "I'm hoping to find an empty landmass big enough for all of you. There should be another continent somewhere, in one of the movies its people tried to invade. If it happens we can interrogate them, they knew where the Elemental Nations where, so they must have a world map or something." Seeing Kurama's unimpressed muzzle, he said "It's a start, at least. Another option would be to create our own dimension like Kamui does, only prettier because that was one **hell **of an ugly place."

The fox laughed and Naruto with him, their task was danting, but the results would be worth it.

* * *

19/05/2020

I had to post this chapter again once I realized just how many mistakes there were, plus I lowered the passing grade for the paper test (so that it was credible that canon Naruto would've passed that portion when he didn't even know what chakra was) and fixed the senbon part of the accuracy test.

They're small modifications that will have no impact on the wider story, but they bothered me so I fixed it.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: Confessions & Inheritance**

I don't own Naruto, it belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. I'm not gaining profit from this.

The last part of Kushina's letter is taken from her last words to Naruto in the anime, they belong to Masashi Kishimoto.

This chapter isn't betaed, any mistakes are my own and English is definitely not my first language. Constructive criticism is much appreciated, flames are not.

_Naruto's thoughts_

**Emphasis**

WRITING

_Naruto talking to Kurama_

**Kurama talking to Naruto**

* * *

There was a knocking at his door.

Naruto pulled the pillow over his head, he had no intention of getting up.

"Naruto! It's noon already!" yelled Iruka.

Naruto groaned and stood up. _Should've made dinner plans instead. _He opened the door and pouted at his former teacher, "Iruka-sensei, you're a demon, you know I love sleeping in." _Now that I can finally do so without morphine._

"I know," the man grinned unrepentantly, "but we made plans. After a celebratory lunch you can take a nap, you deserve it." Naruto stepped aside to allow the Chunin to step inside the apartment, closing the door behind him.

The blond hugged him, grateful beyond words. "Thank you, sensei. I'm a Genin thanks to you, thank you for believing in me."

Iruka hugged him back tightly, "You're welcome. I'm proud of you, Naruto."

They stayed like that a moment longer before letting go. Naruto smiled, "You promised I could call you nii-san once I passed. So, can I?"

"I'd be honoured, otouto." Iruka-nii's smile was warm and loving.

Naruto ignored the tears in the man's eyes, his own eyes were slightly wet. Blinking rapidly, he grabbed his green bra and briefs, the knee length olive green skirt with a high waist and his white spaghetti strap top from his closet and headed to the bathroom. "I'm going to take a quick shower and then we can go...nii-san."

He showered quickly and brushed his hair. _What should I do with it?_

**Leave it down, it looks better that way. **

_You know why I braid it, an enemy could use it against me. Like with Sakura in the Chunin Exams._

**Your mother never did and she was just fine.**

_She was also a spitfire with superior taijutsu skills and an explosive temper. I have none of that._

Naruto could tell Kurama wasn't satisfied with his answer but he didn't disagree.

**You got fifth place after only two months of training. It was the written test and your aim that held you back. Fix your aim and keep training, you'll surpass your mother in no time.**

_Sometimes, it sounds like you liked her._

**I did.** He admitted, Naruto gaped, he hadn't expected that. **Don't get me wrong, I hated her for being my warden, but she didn't have a choice either. The Uzumaki Clan had to give Konoha a Jinchuuriki, it was part of their treaty. I hated her because she looked down on me, because she chained me inside her mind. I couldn't even move. She did all that and had the gall to steal my chakra whenever it suited her.**

_Didn't you say you liked her?_

**I did, near the end. I don't know what happened, but after the war the chains loosened, she started asking before using my chakra. I said no once, to test her, she listened. I never did again, when she used my chakra I could see the outside world, feel it through my cloak. She came to me just to talk, telling me about her day. I don't know what changed, but I liked that Kushina. She had spunk, just like you.**

_Tell me about her?_

**Of course, but I think you let your sensei wait long enough.**

Naruto scrambled to get dressed quickly and run out of the bathroom. He grabbed his brown ankle boots from the wardrobe and put them on. He pumped the chakra through his toes into the seal in his boots, the knife popped out of the tip of his shoe. Another burst of chakra and the knife was hidden again. He also grabbed his black purse with the crossbody strap, he'd bought it two weeks ago from Kikyo's shop.

He did a pirouette to show off the ensemble, "Ready, Iruka-nii."

The man stood up from the kitchen chair and smirked, "Finally. I thought I'd grow old in here."

"Aren't you already old?" The blonde's mischievous smile was swiped off his face by a noogie, "Nii-san, my hair!" he whined.

Laughing, Iruka let go of him and left the apartment. Naruto patted his hair down, grabbed his wallet from the loose floorboard under the bed, the house keys from his bedside table, wrapped his shiny new hitai-ate around his neck and followed him out.

* * *

"Good afternoon, Teuchi-san." greeted Naruto.

"Good afternoon, Naruto. Congratulations on making Genin." grinned the old man.

Ayame smiled at him, "To celebrate, the first bowl is on the house."

Iruka bowed jokingly, "My wallet thanks you."

Giggling, Naruto sat on a stool and ordered pork ramen. Iruka copied him.

"You remember you still have to complete your ninja registration, right Naruto?"

"Of course nii-san, I'll do it tomorrow or the day after."

Neither Teuchi nor Ayame looked surprised by the moniker, they'd been there when the bargain was struck.

"How did yesterday go? Did you have fun at Shikamaru's house?"

"Yeah, we talked a lot and the food was really good. It was weird though." he mumbled around a mouthful of noodles.

"Don't speak with your mouth full," chastised Ayame.

"Sorry, Ayame-chan." apologised Naruto sheepishly.

"Weird how?" asked Iruka.

"His dad kept staring and he asked me why I suddenly changed…"

"Why did you?" asked Teuchi curiously.

"I saw I had two months before graduation." he admitted, embarrassed.

The adults sweatdropped. Naruto ignored them and kept going, "During dinner they didn't say much, they just looked while me and Shika talked, and after dinner Shikaku escorted me home. He was silent the whole way!" Naruto sighed, frustrated, "I don't understand if he liked me or not."

Iruka leaned over to ruffle the blond's hair, "Don't worry. Shikaku-san is just a quiet man by nature, don't take it personally. The first visit to a friend's house is always awkward, it will get better once you get used to each other."

Naruto huffed, disbelieving, but ultimately decided to accept his nii-san's advice (he'd never gone to a friend's house before) and change the topic. "Do you know who my sensei will be? Or my teammates?" Naruto couldn't contain his curiosity, he doubted he wouldn't be on Team 7, but he couldn't risk it, he **had **to be sure.

"Even if I did, I wouldn't tell you." he said seriously.

"I'm with Sasuke, aren't I?" he accused.

"What…? How did you know?" screeched Iruka.

Naruto winced, covering his ears and glared at the man.

"I'm sorry," he said, ashamed, "but how did you know?"

"You always pair us up on team exercises and you always pit us against each other during spars." _It was freaking obvious, _"Even Sasuke, self-absorbed brooder that he is, noticed."

Iruka blushed and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "You're right, but I'm not telling you who your other teammate is."

"It better not be Sakura," he growled. Smelling Iruka's shock, he whined "Nii-san, how could you! She's a fangirl and a harpy! She still smells angry whenever I come near her."

Iruka sighed, "I'm not even going to ask how you know."

He told him anyway, "You smelled shocked." He looked at the man with puppy eyes and trembling lip, "Can't we change her?"

**You already knew she'd be on your team, with her low physical scores and high written ones she makes the most sense.**

_She's also the only civilian kunoichi in the top ten so of course I knew she'd be on my team. The other clan shinobi are all teamed up, Team 7 had the only vacancy._

**Why ask then?**

"I'm sorry Naruto. You can request a team change in three months, if you can argue your case the Hokage may move you. I know you don't like them, but…"

_This is why, I needed to know what my options were. _

He interrupted the man, "I don't mind Sasuke, and I think Sakura could be a great medic or genjutsu user if she took her training seriously. It's just that she seems to hate me, even though I stopped asking her out. I really don't know what her problem is."

"You don't mind Sasuke?" he asked, surprised, "But if you argue all the time!"

"Yeah, but now that I train seriously, the teasing has lost its edge. He likes it, I'm the only one who bothers to challenge him, not even Kiba does that. He sees me as a worthy rival rather than an annoyance like before: Maybe we can become friends, now that we'll be teammates." _Maybe I can finally erase his loneliness. _He knew that Kiba avoided the Uchiha because of the cloying scent of loneliness and self-hatred wafting off the boy. Original had smelled it and started annoying him, the stink abated somewhat when he and Sasuke fought. The Uchiha could deny it as much as he wanted, but their rivalry made him feel better.

He told Iruka as much, and the man smiled at him proudly. "That's very nice of you, Naruto."

They ate the rest of the meal in silence, only asking Teuchi for a bowl of miso ramen (Iruka) and a bowl of miso, shio and shoyu (Naruto). They thanked Teuchi for the meal, Iruka paid and they left.

"You'll take a nap now?" asked Iruka.

"No, I need to talk with Jiji."

"Why?" he asked, baffled.

"There's a mystery I have to solve." Naruto grinned and ran off, waving "Bye nii-san. Thank you for the ramen."

He swerved around passerbys in the streets, sticking his tongue out at anyone who insulted him. He reached Hokage Tower, waved at the Chunin manning the mission desk and ran up the stairs to the second floor, where the administrative offices were located (the archives were in the basement). He walked silently in the hall, the last time he'd run in here he'd been lectured to death, and run up the next flight of stairs as soon as he couldn't see the offices. The Third floor was where the Clan Heads meeting room and the Hokage office were. He smiled at Jiji's secretary, she was an ex-member of his ANBU detail, and knocked at the door. He felt the telltale flare of chakra signifying jutsu from one of the ANBU guards. _Bear, if I remember right._

"Enter," called Sarutobi.

Naruto walked in confidently and closed the door behind himself.

"Ah, Naruto. Congratulations on becoming a Genin. Are you excited?" the Hokage's eyes crinkled with his smile, he smelled happy and proud.

Naruto hated to erase that smile, but he had a hunch on what was hidden on that wall, he just had to be sure. "Yeah, that's not why I'm here though."

"Oh then why are you here?" he asked, confused.

Naruto ignored the question and headed to the bookshelf, pretending to browse through it in search of a particular book. He got closer to the blank wall and carefully analyzed the genjutsu.

"Do you have any books on sealing? I already read Iruka-nii's." he asked the Hokage without turning around.

"Yes, they should be somewhere at the bottom." The old man sounded distracted, Naruto glanced over his shoulder to see him signing paperwork.

Naruto crouched on the ground, still sensing the illusion. _Most genjutsu work by inserting foreign chakra somewhere in the opponent system. This one doesn't._

**It's anchored to the wall, that Bear guy is good.**

_Could be a girl. _Kurama huffed in agreement. _How do I dispel it?_

**Touch the wall and flare your chakra, it's not particularly strong and you have more chakra than him. **

Naruto grabbed a random sealing book and stood up. He quickly laid his hand against the wall and flared his chakra. Four mid-size portraits appeared, each one with a number beneath it, from 1 to 4. The top two showed Hashirama and Tobirama Senju, the bottom ones belonged to a young Hiruzen Sarutobi and Minato Namikaze. Wasn't it too easy?

Naruto was shocked, he knew Original and his dad looked similar, but the anime hadn't done this justice. Minato looked exactly like him, sans whisker marks **plus bangs**. Even their skin tone was the same!

"Naruto what did you do?!" thundered the Hokage.

Naruto whirled around, "I'm sorry Jiji, but I know you hide your tobacco in the secret compartment beneath the desk. I wanted to know what you were really hiding, I thought it was super strong technique scrolls, not silly portraits. Although…" Naruto looked back at his father's portrait, "Jiji, who is that? He looks like me."

Naruto could smell the resignation wafting off the Third. "You're not going to let this go, are you Naruto?" Not waiting for a response, he activated the privacy seals and said "That's the Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato. Your father."

Naruto pivoted on his heel and gaped at the Hokage. _I didn't expect him to give in so easily!_

The Third seemed to misinterpret his surprise, "Yes, Naruto that's your father. I didn't tell you before because I feared you'd spread it around. Your father had many enemies who wouldn't hesitate to come after you for revenge."

"I understand, you wanted to keep me safe." _Original would have definitely yelled it from the rooftops, the Yondaime was his idol. _

"If the Yondaime's my dad, who's my mom? They never said he was married in the Academy."_Maybe I'm a bastard? I don't remember if they were married in the anime or not. _

"They married in secret. Your mother's name was Uzumaki Kushina, Second Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi. Uzumaki Mito, a distant relative of yours, was the First Jinchuuriki ever, she married the First Hokage."

"Why didn't you tell me about her? I can understand my dad, but my mom…"

"She wasn't born in Konoha, her village and ours were allies. Uzushio was destroyed at the start of the Second Shinobi War and as the only great niece of the Uzukage, Kushina was the new Uzumaki Clan Head. The Uzumaki were formidable opponents, using Fuinjutsu like we use Ninjutsu, bigger than average chakra reserves and they even had a bloodline limit. Being a Jinchuuriki on top of that, she had many enemies who would've taken their anger out on you."

"But I have her surname," he said, confused. It didn't make sense.

The Third smiled, the grin of someone who had played a successful prank, "And yet, only a few figured out you are her son. Most think I gave you the name because every Kyuubi Jinchuuriki was an Uzumaki. Your Clan's chakra reserves and chakra density made you perfect for the role."

"Chakra density?" _Is that what you meant when you said my chakra was more like my mother's?_

"Yes. I'm unaware of the specifics, but your Clan's bloodline limit is based on having a denser chakra than most." The man shrugged to show he didn't know more.

**Yes, that's what I meant. Your chakra is denser than Original's. His was too fluid to form the Chakra Chains.**

_I still need to figure out how to do that._

"Did they leave me anything? A letter, photos, something." he asked almost desperately.

**Why so frantic?**

_Original never had anything of his parents. I want something to remember them by, something tangible._

"They did. All shinobi have to leave a Will, they updated it once they knew they were expecting. Everything was left to you. I'll have someone show you later."

Naruto thanked the man, "If mom was the Jinchuuriki, how did Kyuubi get free?" _What does he think happened?_

"Let's sit down, shall we?" Jiji sat behind his desk again, Naruto in the seat in front of it.

"Now, what you need to understand is that during pregnancy, a Jinchuuriki's seal will weaken. To prevent our enemies from taking advantage of this, Kushina was meant to give birth in a secret location. Only her midwife, my wife Biwako, Minato and 4 ANBU guards chosen the day before knew where it was. I don't know what happened exactly, but from what we could piece together, someone snuck into the birthing room, killing the guards and Biwako. This someone somehow distracted Minato from keeping the seal from unraveling, I assume by threatening you somehow, and freed the Kyuubi who then proceeded to attack Konoha. Jinchuuriki usually don't survive the extraction of their Biju but, through sheer willpower, your mother lived long enough to keep Kyuubi immobile with her chains while Minato used the Shiki Fuujin to split the fox in two halves. The Yang half was sealed in you, while the Yin half was sealed inside him. Unfortunately, the Shiki Fuujin is a suicide technique, so Minata and the Yin half were imprisoned in the Shinigami's stomach."

**And the world is going to end. **said Kurama caustically.

_What?!_

**Tell you later.**

"So, my mom chose to protect the village instead of going to the hospital, and my dad sacrificed himself to protect Konoha." He waited for the Sandaime to nod and jumped up from his seat, "Then I'm going to protect Konoha too. I'm going to be Hokage and make them proud, believe it!" he fistpumped.

Sarutobi laughed, delighted. "I'm sure they're already proud of you. I know I am."

Naruto smiled at his grandfather figure while fidgeting, embarrassed and unused to compliments.

Sarutobi smirked at his blush, "Bear."

An ANBU appeared kneeling in front of the desk, his right fist over his heart. Naruto jumped, startled. _How the fuck is he this fast? He didn't even use chakra!_

**Training.**

"Bear, find Kakashi and tell him to grab Minato's and Kushina's Wills." ordered the Hokage.

"Hai, Hokage-sama." ANBU Bear shushined out of the office.

The silence in the room was deafening, Naruto fidgeted, uncomfortable with the wait. To occupy the time he went back to the bookshelf, grabbed a random book and sat on the couch nearby. The Sandaime went back to his paperwork.

_What did you mean with 'the world is going to end'?_

**Nature chakra is responsible for life on this planet. At the beginning, humans didn't have chakra; it was, and still is, in the food they ate, in the air they breathed, in the water they drank. Miniscule amounts of nature chakra that cause no damage and kept them alive. Nowadays, everyone has their own chakra system so nature chakra keeps everything else alive, humans survive thanks to their own chakra. That's why Jinchuuriki don't survive the extraction of their Biju, our chakra is so intertwined that the Jinchuuriki's chakra is ripped out as well, too fast for it to be recovered before their heart stops. The damage is so great that it would take a miracle to save them, even if your mom had gone to the hospital, only Tsunade could have saved her and she wasn't there.**

_I know. Where does the Jinchuuriki's chakra go?_

**It stays with their biju… Anyway, humans didn't have chakra, but then, a meteorite containing a seed landed. This seed came from the same world as Kaguya, it was sent here to absorb natural chakra so that the Ootsutsuki could use it for themselves. The God Tree absorbed the chakra from the land and grew until it gathered enough chakra to create a fruit. By eating it, the Ootsutsuki could gain the power of chakra and weaponise it. Kaguya was sent to monitor this process, but she became greedy and ate the fruit herself. She used her new powers to kill her clan and enslave the world in an Infinite Tsukuyomi. As you know, Kaguya had two children from a human man, Hagoromo and Hamura inherited their mother's chakra. Enraged by what she perceived as a betrayal, Kaguya fused her consciousness and body with the God Tree, becoming the Juubi in an effort to eat her sons and regain the power they 'stole' from her. Hagoromo and Hamura fought and defeated their mother, they imprisoned her on the moon they had created together with the husk of the Ten Tails. The Juubi's chakra was split into nine beings and me and my siblings were created.**

_I already knew all this, and it doesn't answer my question. Why will the world end?_

**You didn't remember everything, we both know that.**

_Well, yeah, but you didn't answer the question._

**Patience.**

Naruto huffed, he could feel Kurama rolling his eyes at his childish behaviour.

**What I meant, is that the God Tree had absorbed all of the world's chakra when it created that fruit. The chakraless humans only survived thanks to the chakra provided by Kaguya's Infinite Tsukuyomi.**

_But there's natural chakra around now! _

**Yes, we gave it back.**

_What?_

**We are solid chakra constructs. We have no cells, for we have no bodies, but we have similar molecules that go through something similar to respiration, with every breath, every step, our every action releases a small amount of chakra into the air. From the air to the clouds, from the clouds to the rain, from the rain to rivers and the soil, animal, plants and humans absorb this and live.**

_Wouldn't you run out? _

**No. We recharge quickly, so we our reserves are never depleted.**

_Wait. If it's your actions that release chakra, then how can you do it from inside me?!_

**We don't. The world is currently running on the chakra we released when we were free. The plants and animals that absorbed it die, and release it back into the earth.**

_But the higher up you go along a food chain, the less energy is transferred between single organisms._

**You're right, soon the world will lack the natural chakra needed to keep going. The amount released by Jinchuuriki accessing our power is too small to restore the balance. Your father just made things worse.**

Naruto hesitated, but he had to know. _How?_

**He ripped me in half and dragged my other half with him in the Shinigami's stomach. Bijuu are chakra constructs yes, but of Nature chakra. Human chakra is a mixture of Yin and Yang, so is Nature chakra. The difference is that there's also another component, called Yoki, that isn't present in humans.**

_I thought Yoki was demonic energy._

**That's what you people call it, because it's wild and untamed and it hurts you. Yoki is what makes Nature and Biju chakra so dangerous. Currently, I have my Yang chakra, half my Yoki and a small amount of Yin chakra. I don't even have enough for myself, much less for the world.**

_So even if I used your chakra…_

**No nature chakra will be released.**

_So the world will end?_

**Not in your lifetime, probably, but yes.**

Naruto thought about it. _Uzumaki Mito created Jinchuuriki, my dad ripped Kurama in half. It's pointless to defeat Kaguya and Akatsuki if my family's actions will make the world end in several decades. _It wasn't a hard decision to make. _I'll free you and your siblings. If Orochimaru doesn't revive my father, I'll release him and your Yin half from the Shinigami's stomach on my own. I'll fix this._

**I believe you, and I'll help. I do believe that's what friends do.**

Naruto flushed happily, it was the first time Kurama had called him 'friend'. He was about to remark on that when he felt a familiar chakra signature outside the door. Bear came in, dragging Kakashi Hatake behind him.

"I found him, Hokage-sama." said the ANBU in monotone.

"Well done, Bear. Dismissed." answered the Hokage.

Bear disappeared and reappeared near the ceiling. _How come I can't see them?_

**Kushina drew seals on the ceiling to ensure the ANBU could stay hidden without using Genjutsu.**

"Kakashi, do you have it?" asked Sarutobi.

_Mom was a genius._

**She was a Fuuinjutsu Grandmaster. Minato was a Master.**

"Yes, Hokage-sama." responded the copy-nin.

Naruto stood and neared the desk and Kakashi handed him the papers in his hand. The Uzumaki read through them, the Wills were short. All their money and things were left to him, his dad left a Hiraishin kunai each for Genma, Raidou and Kakashi, the Hatake also got a photo album and a letter from his mom. There were two letters for Naruto, one from each of his parents, and the deed to their house with his name on it. Everything went inside his black purse.

"Did everyone already receive their stuff?" he asked.

"Yes," answered Kakashi. The man grabbed a storage scroll from his pocket and handed it over.

Naruto grabbed it, confused, "What's in it?"

"Money." drawled Kakashi. "When your parents died, their Wills were read but your name was kept out of it for safety reasons. The civilian council tried to get their hands on their fortune by saying there was no heir. To ensure they couldn't take it, we pretended that they left everything to me. All their money is in it."

Naruto thanked him and put the scroll in his purse. He then bowed deeply to Kakashi, "Thank you, Inu." Kakashi's lone eye widened in shock. "If it hadn't been for you, my life would've been much worse. You protected me, even after my ANBU guard was disbanded. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart."

"How did you know it was me?" asked the silver haired man.

"I'm a sensor." explained Naruto.

Kakashi nodded, wistful. "So was your mother."

Naruto smiled sadly at the man, he only knew her from a TV screen, this man had **really **known her.

"Kakashi, why don't you show Naruto his parents' house?" suggested the Sandaime.

"I'd like to read these letters first." rushed out Naruto. "You know, let the information sink in. This morning I didn't know who they were and now I do and they were great and they loved me enough to leave me their things and letters. They wrote to me jiji!... I just… it still doesn't seem real, you know?"

The Hokage smiled at the child, "I understand. Tomorrow then."

Naruto nodded in agreement and started to leave. "Bye," he waved and left. In the corridor, he leaned against the door and just breathed. He hadn't expected Hiruzen to tell him about his parents so easily, hadn't expected them to leave a Will, wasn't prepared to meet Kakashi, but the worst was finding out that the world depended on him in more ways than one. To stop Kaguya and free the Bijuu to restore the balance. _ What a day._

He straightened up and left.

* * *

Back at his apartment, Naruto snacked on an apple and an orange and headed to the wardrobe. He grabbed the papers from the purse and left them on the bed. He took off his shoes and put them in the wardrobe shelf with the purse on top.

He laid down on his stomach on top of the bedcovers and grabbed one of the letters at random. He opened it and looked at the bottom of the page, 'YOUR MOTHER'. He started reading:

DEAR NARUTO,

IF YOU'RE READING THIS LETTER THAN I DIED IN CHILDBIRTH. I'M 8 MONTHS PREGNANT RIGHT NOW, YOU'RE A LITTLE RASCAL, ALWAYS MOVING AROUND AND PUNCHING MY BLADDER. HOPEFULLY, YOU WERE RAISED BY A LOVING FAMILY, BUT I KNOW…

I KNOW THAT IF I'M DEAD THAN YOU'RE THE NEW JINCHUURIKI. OUR LIVES ARE HARD, WE BEAR A HEAVY BURDEN: TO PROTECT THIS VILLAGE, NOT FROM THE BIJUU (ALTHOUGH I DON'T DOUBT THEY'D WANT REVENGE ONCE FREE, I WOULD). WE PROTECT THIS VILLAGE BY KEEPING THE BALANCE OF POWER, JINCHUURIKI ARE STRONGER THAN ANY SHINOBI, VILLAGES HESITATE TO SEND OUT THEIR WEAPON WHEN THEIR ENEMIES COULD DO THE SAME. WE ARE A DETERRENT FOR WAR, REMEMBER THAT.

I WANT TO BELIEVE THAT KONOHA WILL TREAT YOU WELL, BUT HUMANS HATE WHAT THEY DON'T UNDERSTAND. I WAS BORN IN UZUSHIO AND I CAME TO THIS VILLAGE BEFORE MY HOME'S DESTRUCTION, JUST TO SUCCEED UZUMAKI MITO-SAMA AS THE KYUUBI JINCHUURIKI. I WAS THE OUTSIDER, THE DEMON CONTAINER. I HAD TO FIGHT IN THE SECOND SHINOBI WAR TO GET THEIR ACCEPTANCE. YOU'LL BE KONOHA BORN, BUT I DON'T THINK IT WILL CHANGE MUCH. IF I DIE, KYUUBI WALKS FREE, AS MY SUCCESSOR YOU'LL BE BLAMED IN MY STEAD. I'M SORRY MY SON.

I LOVE YOU, NARUTO-KUN. I HOPE YOU'LL FIND LOYAL FRIENDS LIKE I DID. UCHIHA MIKOTO IS MY BEST FRIEND, GO TO HER IF YOU NEED HELP OR JUST WANT TO TALK; HER HUSBAND, UCHIHA FUGAKU, AND HYUUGA HIZASHI WERE MINATO'S GENIN TEAMMATES. IF JIRAIYA DIDN'T TAKE YOU IN, I HOPE YOU WERE RAISED BY ONE OF THEM, BUT I KNOW THE COUNCIL WILL NEVER ALLOW ANOTHER CLAN TO RAISE THE YONDAIME'S SON. I HOPE I'M WRONG, BUT IF I'M RIGHT I KNOW THEY'LL DO THEIR BEST TO BE THERE FOR YOU, THEY'RE STUBBORN LIKE THAT.

I WISH I COULD'VE SEEN YOU GROW UP, BUT I WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT I'LL ALWAYS LOVE YOU. THERE'S ABSOLUTELY NOTHING THAT COULD EVER MAKE ME HATE YOU, EVEN BECOMING A MISSING-NIN. TRUE, I'LL BE A BIT DISAPPOINTED, BUT AS LONG AS YOU'RE HAPPY I'LL ALWAYS BE PROUD OF YOU.

NOW, MOM ADVICE:

DON'T BE PICKY, EAT LOTS AND GROW STRONG

MAKE SURE THAT YOU BATHE EVERY DAY AND STAY WARM

DON'T STAY UP LATE, YOU NEED LOTS OF SLEEP

KEEP UP WITH YOUR STUDIES

MAKE FRIENDS, ONES YOU CAN REALLY TRUST

REMEMBER THAT EVERYONE HAS STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES, SO DON'T GET DEPRESSED IF YOU CAN'T DO SOMETHING

RESPECT YOUR TEACHERS AND UPPERCLASSMEN AT THE ACADEMY

OH, THIS IS IMPORTANT, IT'S ABOUT THE THREE PROHIBITIONS FOR A SHINOBI:

BE EXTRA CAREFUL WHEN LENDING OR BORROWING MONEY, PUT YOUR WAGES INTO YOUR SAVINGS ACCOUNT

NO ALCOHOL UNTIL YOU'RE TWENTY. TOO MUCH CAN RUIN YOUR HEALTH SO DRINK IN MODERATION

DON'T GET HOOKED ON BAD WOMEN (OR GUYS)

SPEAKING OF THE THREE PROHIBITIONS, BE WARY OF JIRAIYA-SENSEI. HE'S A GOOD MAN, JUST A BIT...WELL, YOU'LL SEE.

NARUTO, BE TRUE TO YOURSELF. FIND A DREAM YOU'D FIGHT FOR AND HAVE THE CONFIDENCE TO MAKE YOUR DREAM COME TRUE.

THERE'S SO MUCH MORE I WANT TO PASS ON TO YOU, BUT IT WOULDN'T FIT IN A LETTER. I LEFT YOU MY FUINJUTSU NOTES AND EVERYTHING ELSE I OWN. USE THEM.

I LOVE YOU,

YOUR MOTHER.

Naruto sniffed, holding back tears. _My mom was great._

**Yeah, she was.**

Naruto folded the letter and put it back in its envelope and hid it between the pages of his drawing notebook. He then grabbed Minato's letter.

MY DEAR SON,

IF YOU'RE READING THIS LETTER THEN I'M OBVIOUSLY DEAD. I DON'T KNOW HOW IT HAPPENED, BUT IF YOU'RE MOTHER IS STILL ALIVE THAN IT'S LIKELY THAT I WAS ASSASSINATED. IF SHE'S DEAD, THEN THERE WERE COMPLICATIONS WITH YOUR BIRTH. iN THAT CASE, YOU'RE LIKELY THE NEW JINCHUURIKI OF THE KYUUBI AND IT'S MOST CERTAINLY MY FAULT.

I KNOW MYSELF WELL ENOUGH TO KNOW I'D NEVER LET SOMEONE ELSE SACRIFICE THEMSELVES IN MY STEAD, EVEN IF IT MEANS LEAVING YOU ALONE. WE WERE WARNED THAT KYUUBI COULD BURST FREE DURING LABOUR, BUT WE LOVED YOU SO MUCH THAT WE DIDN'T CARE, THE RISK IS WORTH IT. YOU'RE WORTH IT.

BUT WE'RE SHINOBI AND WE TOOK PRECAUTIONS. THE LOCATION OF THE BIRTH WILL BE KEPT SECRET, ONLY ME, KUSHINA AND KAKASHI WILL KNOW. I'LL TELEPORT THE CHOSEN ANBU GUARDS AND BIWAKO DIRECTLY TO THE SITE ONCE KUSHINA'S IN LABOUR. THOSE PRECAUTIONS WILL WORK AGAINST ENEMY NINS WANTING TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE SITUATION. AGAINST KYUUBI… WELL, THE SHIKI FUUJIN IS OUR ONLY HOPE.

I'M SORRY TO PLACE THIS BURDEN ON YOU, BUT I DON'T REGRET IT. WE'RE A SHINOBI FAMILY AND SACRIFICES MUST BE MADE FOR THE GOOD OF THE VILLAGE. YOU'RE A CHUNIN NOW, SO I'M SURE YOU UNDERSTAND. (YOU BETTER BE! I TOLD HIRUZEN TO GIVE THIS TO YOU THEN.)

I MADE JIRAIYA-SENSEI YOUR GODFATHER, BUT I KNOW HIM ENOUGH TO KNOW HE'LL LIKELY REFUSE TO RAISE YOU. HE'S NO GOOD WITH KIDS. IT'S A MIRACLE ME, FUGAKU AND HIZASHI CAME OUT ALRIGHT. IT'S LIKELY DUE TO DOING MOSTLY SELF-STUDY, JIRAIYA ONLY STARTED TRAINING ME SERIOUSLY WHEN I BECAME HIS APPRENTICE.

YOU MAY WONDER WHY HE'S YOUR GODFATHER, IF I NEVER EXPECTED HIM TO TAKE YOU IN. THE ANSWER IS SIMPLE: PROTECTION. JIRAIYA MAY NOT RAISE YOU, BUT HE'LL WATCH OUT FOR YOU AND HELP HIRUZEN KEEP THE SHINOBI AND CIVILIAN COUNCILS AND THE ELDERS IN CHECK. ESPECIALLY DANZO AND THE CIVILIANS.

I DOUBT HIZASHI AND FUGAKU (MY GENIN TEAMMATES) WILL BE ALLOWED TO RAISE YOU, THE CIVILIAN COUNCIL AND THE ELDERS WILL PROTEST A JINCHUURIKI BEING RAISED BY A CLAN, IT WOULD GIVE THEM TOO MUCH POWER. USELESS OLD GEEZERS. WHEN YOU BECOME HOKAGE, PLEASE GET RID OF THEM (IF THEY'RE NOT ALREADY DEAD). OR CURTAIL THEIR POWER, EITHER ONE WILL BE FINE.

I HOPE KAKASHI HAS BEEN THERE FOR YOU, HE'S LIKE A SON TO ME AND I KNOW HE'LL BE A GREAT BIG BROTHER TO YOU. HE'S ALREADY PLOTTING ALL THE EMBARRASSING STORIES HE WANTS TO TELL YOU ABOUT ME. THE RASCAL!

WITH LOVE,

YOUR FATHER.

Naruto growled deeply. _What a shitty letter! Is this really all he wanted to tell me?_ He reread the letter. _Seriously? Bypass all possible dreams and straight to Hokage, like it's a forgone conclusion I'll want the hat!_ The more he read through it, the more pissed off he became. He wasn't even sure why, but something about this letter rubbed him the wrong way. Not knowing how to express how he was feeling, not being entirely sure himself, he latched onto the first point he could complain about. _That bastard! I'm his son! How could he put the wellbeing of the village above mine!_

**He was the Hokage,** **it's**** in the job description.**

_I'll never do that. Sacrificing myself is fine, but an innocent baby who can't even give his consent, my child at that… No, never!_ True, but it wasn't what angered him so. Naruto silently wondered to himself that hormones were a bitch. _Fuck puberty._

**Minato always cared more about the village than his family, Kushina often complained about it. You're a lot like her.**

_Maybe I shouldn't become Hokage._

**You're already plotting how to save the world from Kaguya and human stupidity, you'll be a great Hokage.**

_My family's stupidity, more like. _He deadpanned. _Thank you, Kurama. You're a great friend._

The Bijuu grumbled, embarrassed. **You're welcome, kit.**

Naruto suddenly remembered something. _Remember how I said we could create a dimension for you Bijuu?_

**Yes. What about it?**

_If we did that, the world is doomed. Finding an empty island is our best bet. _

**True, I didn't think of that.**

_You were just concentrated on the possibility of freedom, it's understandable._

Naruto grabbed his dad's letter and put it in his notebook with the other one, he then put it back in the bedside drawer. It had been a surprisingly emotional day, Naruto felt mentally exhausted. _It's still early, but I better go to sleep. I don't want to deal with anything else right now._

He cooked a plate of fried rice and ate it quickly. He showered, washed and dried his hair, put on the scentless body lotion and dressed for bed. He closed the curtains, checked the security seals and set the alarm clock for 6 a.m. He wanted to train a bit before he had to meet Kakashi the next day. _Wait, when are we meeting? _Shrugging, he decided to worry about it tomorrow.

_Goodnight Kurama._

**Goodnight kit.**

* * *

I always found it weird that there were no pictures of Minato. I understand that the history books might have had no pictures, or that the mountain not being colored meant Naruto didn't see the resemblance, but important people usually made portraits of themselves in the past.

So then I started thinking: if there are portraits, where would they be? Why did Naruto never see them? Would they be hidden from everyone or just him?

I decided the Hokage office was perfect as they were all Kage and any shinobi who came in could see them. Would paranoid killers be suspicious if after the Kyuubi attack the portraits were removed? Obviously Sandaime couldn't remove just the Fourth there would have been an outcry and people would want to know why he did it. So hiding them just from Naruto it was.

Also, this isn't a Minato bashing fanfic, I just think he's one of those geniuses that put their foot in their mouth. The SI will see that later on, but for now I need him angry at the Fourth. You'll see why much, much later on in the story.

Thank you to everyone who followed or favorited my story.

Read & Review, please.

28/05/2020

I fixed some grammatical mistakes and wrote that there were two Wills, one from Kushina and one from Minato: I realised while re-reading it that if their marriage was a secret, having a shared Will was a very bad idea.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: The Uzumaki Compound**

I don't own Naruto, it belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. I'm not gaining profit from this.

This chapter isn't betaed, any mistakes are my own and English is definitely not my first language. Constructive criticism is much appreciated, flames are not.

_Naruto's thoughts_

**Emphasis**

WRITING

_Naruto talking to Kurama_

**Kurama talking to Naruto**

* * *

With a puff of smoke, there were now 6 Naruto in Training Ground 3.

**Why are we here? Shouldn't we wait at the Tower?**

_It's only 7:30. Kakashi visits the Memorial Stone often, I'll either meet him here or I'll go to the Tower at a more decent hour._

**We could've slept in instead. Why did we wake up so early?**

_I need to fix my aim, remember?_

"Sorry, Boss-lady. I don't mean to interrupt, but shouldn't we start training?" asked a Naruto clone.

Naruto smiled apologetically, "Right. Two of you do tree-walking over there," he said pointing to his left, "the other two water walking on the river." _I really need to stop ignoring my surroundings when talking to you. _"The last one will train his accuracy," he pointed at the obstacle course Iruka had created for him during the first week of training. It had both stationary and moving targets, some were placed in really awkward positions. His aim was to hit all bullseyes, but he still missed some targets completely, so he was quite a way off.

There was a brief scuffle to decide who would be doing what, but the clones sorted themselves out. Naruto created another clone and handed him his wallet, "Go to Kikyo-san's shop and buy some arm and leg warmers. I want you to stitch weight seals on them."

The clone saluted and left.

Naruto dropped to the ground and started stretching. Iruka had advised him to start thinking of how he wanted his taijutsu to develop, the Academy katas were good for beginners but only Genin used it. Clans had their own taijutsu style, but unless his mom had left some scrolls for him, he had to find a style on his own. Either way, he'd decided to focus on speed and flexibility. The leg weights would increase his speed and the arm weights would help his strength; he didn't want to bulk up but more upper body strength couldn't hurt.

After stretching every muscle, leaving him loose limbed and aching slightly, he started a series of push-ups, 3 sets of 20. Squats, sit ups, crunches, lunges. By the end of it, he was sweating and gasping for breath, red faced from exertion. A clone handed him a hand towel to dry his face and a water bottle. Naruto thanked him before sending him back to tree-walking.

He sipped the water and relaxed against the wooden pole Original would have been tied up to after the bell test. He could sense the clone he'd sent off walking towards him. Naruto wished he'd speed up already. _No matter how often I do this, it's still weird to feel myself moving around somewhere else. Although, __how come no one can tell the difference?_

**They can when it's an elemental clone, like earth or water. Kage Bunshin have the same chakra as the original, not just the element.**

_But I can tell, I always have a trace amount of your chakra in my system, clones don't._

**You're attuned to my chakra; even skilled sensors wouldn't feel that. They'd still be able to tell who's the original from the different chakra levels. You'll always have more chakra than them.**

_I know, I meant the Byakugan and Sharingan._

**Don't know what to tell you, kit. Maybe they're just unobservant idiots.**

Naruto guffawed, and waved his errand clone over. He grabbed the brown paper bag from his copy and dispelled him. _Damn, I need to buy more Fuinjutsu supplies. _He summoned another clone, "Go to Furui-san's weapon shop and buy more Fuinjutsu ink, empty scrolls and blank paper tags."

"I still can't believe the old man's name literally means 'old'." said the clone in a bewildered tone.

Naruto patted his clone on the back, nodding sagely "You and me both."

"Do you want another brush too?" asked the clone, "Ours is almost ruined."

"Yeah, buy a fine point brush too, I need it for detailing."

The clone nodded and dashed off.

_Wait,_ _I need to open a bank account and deposit my parents' money._

"Wait up, idiot!" yelled Naruto.

The clone stopped and returned to his side, "You know you just called yourself an idiot, right?"

Naruto blushed and pouted at the laughing Bijuu in his head, "Yeah well… Anyway. My wallet," Naruto handed it over to his now blushing clone (_Revenge is sweet) _and the scroll with his parents' cash "and take this as well. I want you to open a bank account and make a deposit."

"What if someone steals it?"

"Jiji will eat them alive," deadpanned the blond. Seeing his copy was still worried, he sighed "It's best not to have it with me. Someone could steal it. This way, even if something happens, the bank will be forced to give me compensation for their incompetence." His grin was threatening, sharp canines on display. The clone cackled and left to do his bidding.

He shook his head at his clone's antics and opened the brown paper bag left on the ground. The arm warmers were actually a pair of gloves: black, fingerless gloves that reached his halfway up his bicep. The leg warmers were black and went from his ankle to just beneath his knee, they were made from some kind of stretchy, skin tight material. Each piece of clothing had 10 light grey weight seals, weighing 5 kg each. They needed 3 consecutive chakra pulses to activate and, unless he wanted to crush his limbs, they had to be activated one by one once he got used to every increase in weight. Luckily, they needed 2 chakra pulses to deactivate so in a fight he could just cover the entire thing in chakra and be done with it.

He activated one seal on each piece and removed his sandals. He put on the leg warmers and his blue sandals over them. He took off the black plastic wristwatch he'd bought last week (he had no idea how ninja could tell the time without it, but it wasn't a talent he shared) and put on the gloves, he flexed his fingers to ensure they wouldn't impede the grip on his weapons. Seeing that everything worked fine, he put the watch back on his right wrist and started going through the Academy katas to get used to the weight. He didn't stop until he could do them just as fast as before.

After that, he started running laps around the training ground at a steady pace. He dispelled his clones every 2 laps until only the clone in the village was left. Seeing himself from different angles and remembering doing different things at once when he **knew **he'd only done one, was less weird than he expected the first time he did the jutsu. The memories felt right, they fit in the right slots and he only developed a headache when he thought too much about it, so he stopped.

He paused at the base of a tree and started walking up its trunk, the new weight changed the amount of chakra needed to stick, but it wasn't too bad. The worse was the strength needed in his abdominal and back muscles to keep him horizontal.

Clones could improve his chakra control through this exercise, which is why he did it every morning, but his core muscles could only be strengthened on his own. Muscle memory, theoretical knowledge and chakra control could be trained through Kage Bunshin, but not the body. _Still, how come Original didn't figure it out until Kakashi told him? He abused the hell out of this technique, and he didn't even do it properly! Seriously, from some of the pranks I remember doing, he was no idiot. Not book smart, but smarter than the series made him out to be. _

Shelving this matter for later contemplation, Naruto reached the tree branches and started jumping from tree to tree. He somersaulted, backflipped and generally fooled around amongst the trees to ensure the added weight didn't decrease his agility. He threw himself off a tree and landed crouched on the surface of the river. His limbs sinked a bit, but he regulated his chakra output and stood up on the surface of the river.

"I'm Jesus!" he cackled. _This never gets old._

**You're still new to this world, you'll get used to it.**

Naruto doubted he would, but he saw no point in arguing with his tenant. He walked back to the shore and headed to the obstacle course. The arm weights screwed up his aim some, but he got the hang of it fairly quickly. Halfway through, he deactivated the weight, his kunai missed completely.

Naruto growled, frustrated. _I need to adjust to the weight changes in a split second, I can't afford this mistake on the field. _He reactivated his weights, grabbed his scattered weapons and went back to the starting point. He repeated the course until the changes stopped throwing him off. He only missed the bullseye of the targets in his blind spot, hidden in a hollow of a tree trunk and amongst the bushes. _Better than before._

Stretching his arms above his head, he walked back to his apartment.

* * *

Naruto closed his eyes and tilted his head up towards the shower head. His clone had opened the account (_Thank fuck I didn't go, that's way too much paperwork. Too bad I still remember doing it._) and left his shopping bag on the kitchen table. He'd henged into a generic brown haired, brown eyed boy with no whiskers to buy art supplies from the shop down the street. He was sick of using pens or pencils. He now owned: coloured pencils, an actual sketchbook he could use instead of his lined one, different sized brushes, a watercolour paint set, a sketchbook made of watercolour paper, a basic acrylic paint set and 4x4 canvas pack. He'd never used paint, but he always wanted to try. Now he could.

Naruto left the shower and dried his hair with a jutsu Iruka taught him, it left it softer than a hair dryer would. He put on his black gloves, skin tight leg warmers, black underwear, knee-length black leggings, black armoured corset and his Purple battle kimono with yellow butterflies and dark blue obi. He tied his dark blue hitai-ate around his neck and stared at his shoes. _Should I wear my boots or black shinobi sandals?_

**If you choose the sandals, take your weapons. I won't have you defenceless.**

_Weapons are overkill. I'm just visiting my parents' old house._

**Better overkill then dead.**

Naruto laughed at his Bijou's paranoia. _Inu won't let anything happen to me._

Kurama considered that. **Boots then.**

Naruto slipped his shoes on and headed to the kitchenette. He looked at the time, 10 a.m., and decided he had enough time to eat something. He was always hungry after morning training. A bowl of milk with cereals and two pieces of toast with strawberry jam later, he slipped his keys and wallet in the storage seal in his obi and headed out.

* * *

"Ready?"

I nodded at the old man behind the weird antique camera and smiled.

"Ouch! Fuck!" the flash blinded the Jinchuuriki, he could feel his eyes watering and black spots dancing in his vision.

"Language, kid." chastised the photographer, "You alright?"

Naruto could smell the old man coming closer, he held a hand up and stopped him, he didn't want unknowns in his space when vulnerable. "Yeah, yeah. The flash just blinded me."

"Ah... Maybe I shouldn't have used it."

Naruto blinked rapidly. Kurama's chakra had healed him already. "No worry old man." Naruto held his hand out for the photo and left. "Bye, old man."

"Bye, kunoichi-san."

Naruto didn't bother correcting the man's assumption. He headed to a desk manned by a tired Chunin and gave him the photo and his registration form. He was now an official ninja of Konoha.

He sensed Kakashi's chakra outside the Tower and met him outside.

"Done?" asked the Jounin.

"Yeah, let's go."

Kakashi jumped on the closest rooftop, Naruto followed him. He could smell the nervousness, old grief and guilt wafting off the man, but chose not to comment.

Naruto was very confused; he was pretty sure they were heading towards the Uchiha Compound. _Kurama?_

**You'll see, kit.**

Right when he thought they reached the Uchiha estate, they veered right towards a forested area. Jumping through the trees, Naruto kept pestering his Bijou.

_I thought we were going to their house._

**We are.**

Naruto shared his memory of the house in the alternate universe Naruto and Sakura ended up in.

**That was Minato's house, Kushina stayed there most of the time but she had her own apartment. They always planned to move here once you were born. Everyone would know they were together.**

_You mean they didn't?_

**No, they kept the relationship secret, Namikaze was a shoe in for Hokage being involved with the Jinchuriki might've compromised it. After that, Kushina fell pregnant and they eloped in secret. They didn't want their enemies to know, not until you were born and her seal wasn't at risk. If they went public, everyone would be watching them, it would be impossible to hide the pregnancy of the Hokage's wife then.**

_Makes sense._

Naruto saw a wall through the leaves, ivy covered a good chunk of it, poking through the cracks between the grey stones. A huge wooden gate marked the entrance, an engraved Uzumaki swirl at its centre.

"Put your hand on the end of the spiral."

"Uhm… Which is it?" Naruto asked sheepishly.

Kakashi looked at him like he was an idiot.

Naruto bristled, "What? A spiral can start from the outside or the centre!"

Kakashi sighed, still with that long suffering look on his face. "The centre, brat."

Naruto growled, irritated and harshly slapped his hand on the engraving. Kakashi placed his at the beginning of the spiral. The Jinchuriki felt a sting on his hand and could smell their blood and feel Kakashi's chakra spiking. The wood beneath his hand was getting warmer and started glowing. His free arm came up to protect his eyes from the blinding glow, barely managing to not remove his hand from the now scalding hot gate.

When it was over, Naruto blinked black spots out of his vision. _Seriously?! It's the second time today._ He ignored Kurama laughing in the back of his mind and glared at Kakashi. "You could've warned me."

"Yes," he agreed.

He waited for an apology and glared when he realised it wouldn't come. He was about to give that bastard Jounin a piece of his mind when the doors creaked open. Slowly, inexorably.

"Why did it need your blood?" asked Naruto. His he could understand, but Kakashi wasn't an Uzumaki right? Maybe his unknown mother...?

"So that no one could just take yours and open the gate. They'd need my blood and chakra too and there's no way to steal chakra without absorbing it, making it useless."

Naruto really wanted to comment on this paranoia and distrust of the village, but thinking of Danzo… Well, he was glad his parents were such a pair of cynics.

As soon as they passed through, the gate closed behind them. _Are these automatic?_

**Seal operated, actually. There should be a spiral on this side too to open them.**

"Will you always have to be there to open them?" _That would suck._

"No." Kakashi didn't seem inclined to say more but a glare from Naruto urged him to keep talking. "You're keyed in. Use the spiral on the side of the gate to open and close it now."

_Getting this guy to fucking speak is like pulling teeth.__ He definitely spent too long in ANBU._

**Stop procrastinating and look around.**

_But this is… This is where we would've lived. If Obito hadn't…_

Kurama sighed. **I know kit. But this was your mother's home, before the Third War.**

_Why...?_

**Later kit. Open your eyes.**

Naruto took a deep breath. Then another. And another. He felt Kakashi coming closer and put a hand on his shoulder. The Uzumaki grabbed it and squeezed it convulsively. He took strength from Inu's presence, his protector was here. Everything was fine.

The garden was a mess. The grass reached just beneath his knees and the flowerbeds on both sides of the path were covered in weeds. The grey stones leading to the main entrance of the building were muddy and almost covered by plants.

The house itself was a traditional Japanese home, two stories and shaped like a horseshoe. The dark blue tiled roof was in need of a thorough cleaning, especially the rain gutters which were overflowing with dead leaves and Kami knows what else. The red wood of the house looked to be in fairly good condition but Naruto still thought he should have someone check it over. The house had been abandoned for more than twelve years at least. Who knew if Kushina still paid for maintenance when she left this place?

* * *

The central part of the building held what he assumed was a sitting room, a bathroom and the stairs leading to the second floor. The left side was a huge library with floor to ceiling bookshelves and several couches that had definitely seen better days. The tables were still good but he'd have to replace the seats. There was also an armoury with beautifully decorated katanas, naginatas and weapons he didn't know the name of covering the walls. There were also three richly decorated scrolls on separate white marble stands.

**Summoning scrolls.**

_Wow._ Naruto looked more closely at each one. The first from the left was red with golden lions, the second was blue with silver otters and the last was green with some kind of bird in bronze.

The right side of the horseshoe was more boring. It had a huge dining room and a very large kitchen with a pantry that, weirdly enough, reminded him of Bilbo's. Thankfully, it was empty and there were no dirty dishes or rotting food anywhere. It still needed a through scrub down. Naruto was not looking forward to that.

The second floor held eight bedrooms: each one had its own bathroom and there were absolutely no personal effects. Not even bed sheets or towels. In fact, several mattresses would have to be replaced.

* * *

Naruto was horrified to find a koi pond with a small waterfall and dead fishes in the back garden. The smell had almost made him puke before Kakashi burned away the corpses and made the water evaporate. If he hadn't jumped away in time, the steam would have burned him. Kurama yelling in his head at the carelessness of the Jounin made his nausea even worse.

There was a training field in the back as well, it was a clearing surrounded by trees with a wooden dummy for taijutsu practice in the middle, targets hanging from branches and painted on the trunks of several trees.

The worst part by far, came when he saw the cemetery.

* * *

Hidden on the left side of the property was the Uzumaki burial ground. It was a small plot of land with twenty graves total. They were covered in weeds and filth from the falling rains over the years. The names were barely legible underneath all the muck.

He asked Kakashi to use a Suiton jutsu to clean them up somewhat and he made sure to read and memorise every name so he could search them in the Archives later. This was his family. The Hatake assured him that both his parents were buried in Konoha's cemetery and the graves were taken care of.

Naruto was unsure if he should feel comforted by that. On the one hand, it was nice to know that wherever they were buried, it wasn't in such an abandoned place. On the other hand, this was the Uzumaki graveyard, even Mito Uzumaki was buried here rather than in the Senju cemetery beside her husband. It seemed unfair that his mother wasn't there with the rest of their Clan.

Naruto silently promised his ancestors that he would get this place fixed up and back to its former glory, Believe it!

* * *

28/05/2020

I fixed some mistakes and changed a piece of it: Minato and Kushina hid their relationship before Minato became Hokage because dating the Jinchuriki might blow his chance of getting the hat. After that, Kushina fell pregnant and they hid their marriage cos all eyes would be on her if she was officially the Hokage's wife and hiding the pregnancy would be impossible.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: What?**

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, it belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. I'm not gaining profit from this.

This chapter isn't betaed, any mistakes are my own and English is definitely not my first language. Constructive criticism is much appreciated, flames are not.

_Naruto's thoughts_

**Emphasis**

WRITING

_Naruto talking to Kurama_

**Kurama talking to Naruto**

* * *

The next day, a banging on the door woke Naruto from his sleep. He groaned and pulled the pillow over his head, futilely hoping his visitor would leave.

"Naruto! I know you're inside. Wake up!"

_Iruka-nii? What's he doing here?_

He left the comfort of his bed and opened the door, bleary eyed. "Nii-san, whatsit?" he mumbled.

"Naruto, you forgot to write a Will." he scolded, waving around the sheet of paper in his hand.

That woke him up. "What?!" _Kurama, I'm hallucinating!_

Seeing that his little brother was hyperventilating, Iruka hurried to reassure him. "It's just to be safe. Every shinobi has to tell the administration what they want done with their things should the worst happen."

This did absolutely nothing to reassure him. **Writing a Will before even going on a mission, isn't it bad luck? It should be.**

Naruto agreed. "I haven't even gone on a simple D-rank yet! Nor received my team assignment!" _I know who I'll be with and Iruka confirmed it but my point still stands._

"This way by the time you go on a mission you'll have forgotten all about it. Can you imagine having to write it before your first C-rank? The stress and fear can lead to all sorts of silly mistakes. Deadly ones even."

"I guess…" mused Naruto, "it's going to be months before we get an actual mission." Thinking back to how he had to write things down or forget them, he was forced to agree with Iruka. "I really will have forgotten about this by then."

* * *

One would think that Naruto not having much and having even less people to leave it to would make this easy. It was anything but.

"You can't leave all your parents' money to me!"

"Iruka-nii, you're like the only precious person I have. Who else would I leave it to?" _Why's he complaining?_

**No idea. I thought any human would be happy with this.**

Iruka sighed, "Still, isn't there someone else? The orphanage maybe?"

Naruto laughed, "After how they treated me? No way." _Still... _"if you don't want it write that all my money will be split between yourself, Teuchi and Ayame." _The only ones who cared._

Iruka nodded sadly in understanding and helped him complete the module.

Really, nothing said 'shinobi life is dangerous' more than a standard form for Wills. Kunai, shuriken and uniforms were provided by the village for Genin and above and so would be returned to be destroyed or recycled. Non-standard weapons like senbon or katanas had to be written down with the intended recipient beside them. If it was left blank, they would be sold and the money left to whoever was set to inherit it. Same with any furniture, crockery and other non-shinobi paraphilia like clothes.

Thankfully, as there was nothing in particular he wanted to leave Iruka and the Ichirakus, he simply wrote: PERSONAL BELONGINGS - TO BE SOLD, NOTEBOOKS AND ART THINGS - IRUKA, CLOTHES - KONOHA'S ORPHANAGE. The school books had already been returned to the Academy to be lent to the next orphan.

Naruto was not sure about leaving his notes of the future to Iruka, but they were in Sindarin and Khuzdul so he seriously doubted they would ever be deciphered. They might think he was a spy or something for seemingly coming up with two whole languages but he'd be dead at that point, so not his problem.

Clan property would be reclaimed by the Clan or, in case of extinction, left to the village i.e. the Hokage and possibly the Elders. Maybe the Council. This did not sit well with Naruto. If Tsunade was in charge that would be one thing, no matter her surname, she still had Uzumaki blood. Karin could inherit if she lived in Konoha, but she was a Kusa-nin so that would never happen.

"Is there a way to adopt you into the Uzumaki Clan?" If Iruka was Uzumaki that would solve it.

Iruka, blinked, why he smelled surprised when Naruto was obviously leaving most of his things to him was a mystery. He really should've seen this coming. "Is it even still a Clan?"

"What?"

"I mean, I'm not completely sure but I think you need more than one member to make a Clan."

"The Hatake is still a Clan, right?" _We studied that._ Iruka nodded. "It only has one member too… so does the Uchiha."

"Actually, the Hatake Clan has several former shinobi members working as merchants around Fire Country..."

"What?!" he squawked.

"... and the Uchiha Clan are the founders of this village so them and the Senju have special privileges. As long as there is even one shinobi with that surname lives in Konoha they will remain a Clan."

"So Sasuke has to be a shinobi?" _That would suck. Not that I had much choice either._

"Well," he hesitated, "yes."

"But the Hatake Clan only has Kakashi as an active ninja, right?"

"Yes, but it also has several members who served the full ten years of active service and are now reserve members."

_Why were they never introduced before?! And why was Kakashi raised by Minato then?_

**The Kakashi described in your story doesn't seem like the type to introduce his team to the family. Minato raised Kakashi because the child was his apprentice, that takes precedence over blood relations unless otherwise stated in a Will.**

_How do you know that?_

**Kushina asked them the same thing.**

"So, because I'm the only one and the Uzumaki are not a founding Clan we're not actually a Clan anymore?" Naruto was pissed. It was his family that was sacrificed to contain Kurama, Konoha wore their spiral and they couldn't even keep their Clan status?

"I think so, but I'm not sure. You'd have to check with the administration."

"Oh, I will." he said menacingly. He wouldn't let this travesty stand, Konoha owed them this much.

* * *

I apologise for how short it is. Gai was meant to appear in this chapter but I'm having trouble writing him so he'll be in the next one.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: Requirements & Team 9**

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, it belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. I'm not gaining profit from this.

This chapter isn't betaed, any mistakes are my own and English is definitely not my first language. Constructive criticism is much appreciated, flames are not.

_Naruto's thoughts_

**Emphasis**

WRITING

_Naruto talking to Kurama_

**Kurama talking to Naruto**

* * *

Naruto barged into the Hokage's office, Iruka futilely trying to stop him.

"Jiji!" he yelled. Banging the door closed behind him.

The Sandaime looked up from his paperwork, amused. "Naruto. It's been a while since you entered my office like that."

Naruto blushed, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. "Sorry jiji. I was on a roll."

Iruka stepped forward and bowed deeply, "I apologise, Hokage-sama. I tried to stop him from barging in, but I failed."

The Hokage, waved away his apology. "You didn't see my secretary stopping him, did you? Naruto knows he can just come in as long as I'm alone."

Naruto remembered that discussion. Original had barged in, too excited after a prank to realise his grandfather figure was not alone in his office: he was in a meeting with the Elders. Original had stood frozen under those disdainful gazes, but what scared him more was the scent coming off the bandaged one. Naruto didn't know what Danzo had been feeling at that moment and he never wanted to find out. Nothing good could come from that man, thank fuck Inu had stepped in and hurriedly dragged him away. _The list of things I have to thank him for keeps getting longer._ Kurama agreed.

Sarutobi cleared his throat and leaned forward in his seat, "Now then. Was there something you needed, Naruto?"

"Oh yeah." Naruto hit his fist against his open hand, remembering his indignation from earlier. "Jiji, how come the Uzumaki aren't a Clan anymore?"

The old man blinked, smelling confused. "Of course they are, who told you that?"

Naruto looked at Iruka who blushed and hurried to explain, "I was helping Naruto write his Will, Hokage-sama, when he asked if he could adopt me into the Uzumaki Clan so he could leave the house and its contents to me. I told him I was unsure if the Uzumaki still qualified as a Clan when Konoha's laws clearly state…"

The Sandiame interrupted him, raising his hand, "I understand what happened." He looked at Naruto and gestured for both of them to sit. "Iruka is right, Konoha's Clan laws do state that for a shinobi Clan to be called such, it needs at least one active shinobi member or a prospective shinobi plus a minimum of five reserve members. Following this criteria, the Uzumaki are not a shinobi Clan."

Naruto jumped to his feet, "But that's not fair! Jiji, we…"

"Let me finish." he ordered. Naruto sullenly sat back down and the Hokage continued, "The exception to this law are the Senju, the Uchiha…" the old man grinned mischievously, "and the Uzumaki."

Naruto grinned, whooping and fist bumping the air. "I can totally adopt Iruka-sensei then."

The Hokage sighed, "Unfortunately, it's not that simple."

"Is there some kind of assessment?" asked Iruka.

The Sandaime shook his head, "No, nothing of the sort. Konoha's charter clearly states that Clan business is entirely at the discretion of the Clan Head, this includes adoptions." he seemed to gather his thoughts for a moment and then hurried to add, "So long as they respect Konoha's laws, of course. Although they do have more freedoms than most."

"So…" _He can't mean..?_ "Jiji," he hesitated, "are you saying I'm not the Uzumaki Clan Head?"

He sighed, looking grim. "Precisely."

Iruka petted Naruto's hair and smiled at the blond when he looked up at him. "That's not surprising Naruto, you're so young…"

The Hokage interrupted him again, "His age is not the problem."

"What do you mean, Hokage-sama?" asked the Chunin.

"No more interruptions," he admonished. He waited for both of them to nod and started explaining, "The title of Clan Head is traditionally passed from parent to child or to the closest relative when there is no direct heir. Sometimes, the Clan Head will decide not to follow this tradition and name someone else as heir. Most of the time, it doesn't matter who the heir is, so long as they're a part of the Clan, however, some Clans have additional requirements. Take Sasuke for example, he is the last Uchiha and the son of the Clan Head, but he's not the heir until he awakens the Sharingan."

Naruto gasped and raised his hand like he would in class. Amused, the Hokage nodded at him to speak. "But Sasuke lives in the compound."

"He **is **the last Uchiha, Sharingan or not. Everything that was theirs that wasn't sold or bequeathed to other people was given to him." The Hokage had a far off look, "Not that he's taking proper care of it, he refuses to touch the money even for maintenance and only uses the orphan stipend."

"But if he's not the heir, what happens to his Clan?"

The old man laughed, "Well, Naruto, you see, there is a nice little loophole I'm using to keep those greedy civilians from touching his property." He grinned, all teeth, "The Uchiha are a Clan so long as there's someone to carry both the name and the bloodline, nowhere does it say that there **has** to be a Clan Head."

Naruto laughed with him, even Iruka was grinning at this bit of clever thinking. _Still, I doubt Sasuke sees it as a good thing. He's the last of his Clan and can't lead it._

**The more I learn about him, the more surprised I am he's as sane as he is. Although, this does put a new spin on his defection.**

_How so?_

**By abandoning Konoha he also abandoned his legacy as an Uchiha, the Clan would have ceased to be such and all his holdings would've been seized by the village.**

Naruto blanched, _If he was willing to go as far as spit on his family's legacy for revenge… What hope do I have to stop him?_ Kurama didn't answer.

"Is everything alright Naruto?" asked Iruka, looking at his pale face.

Naruto laughed awkwardly and blurted out the first excuse he could think of, "Just thought of Sasuke's reaction when he found out."

Iruka paled and the Hokage grimaced, saying "It wasn't pretty."

As interesting as this information about his future teammate was, Naruto decided to pull the conversation back on track, "So the Uzumaki have special requirements to be the heir. What do I have to do?"

The Hokage looked serious as he said, "The Uzumaki had a Kekkei Genkai called 'Chakra Chains', capable of being used as weapons or to restrain an enemy, some were capable of suppressing their opponent's chakra. Simply prove that you have the Chains and you'll become the Uzumaki Clan Head."

"Do you know how to awaken this Kekkei Genkai, Hokage-sama?" asked Iruka curiously.

He sighed and shook his head, "Unfortunately, I don't."

Naruto grinned, "Don't worry, Jiji. I'll show you those chains in no time!"

_Kurama, please tell me you know how to do that._

**Sorry, kit, I don't know how to awaken your Kekkei Genkai, but I do know how it feels, both from when Kushina used her Chains against me and from when she combined them with my cloak during the war. Will that help?**

_No idea._ He sighed in his head, _Can't hurt._

"Naruto," the Hokage looked terribly serious, scent filled with worry when he said this, "the Uzumaki are not a founding Clan. For their role as our allies and as Kyuubi Jinchuuriki, the Nidaime gave them similar privileges. However, there's a time limit. The status as Clan Head is officially recognized when one becomes Chunin and is allowed to sit on the Council. Should you fail to awaken your Kekkei Genkai by that time, the Uzumaki will lose their Clan status and the property will be seized."

Iruka seemed frozen, rage and outrage pouring off of him. Naruto trembled in rage, but he tried keeping his voice even. "Couldn't you have waited a bit more to tell me?" he spit out caustically.

"I'm sorry, I just didn't want to put any pressure on you, and you still would keep all your parents things and the scrolls in the library. You would just lose the house."

In a sudden moment of clarity, Naruto realised _He doesn't think I can do it. He didn't want to tell me so he didn't have to lie. If it were up to him, I wouldn't know about my Clan._

**He didn't want you to feel guilty when you failed.** growled Kurama. **So much for having faith in you.**

"With all due respect, Hokage-sama," Iruka's voice sounded tight, like he was barely restraining himself from yelling. "Losing the house means losing his connection to his family. You had no right to keep that from him."

* * *

"I can't believe him," yelled Iruka when they left the tower. He suddenly turned towards Naruto, tightly grasped his shoulders and looked him straight in the eyes, "You can do it, Naruto. I'll help you, we'll read all the books in that library if we have to and we'll make it work. I won't let you lose anything else."

Naruto staggered forward, hugging his nii-san tightly. Desperate sobs passed his lips, barely muffled by Iruka's shirt. _I just found this connection and now…_

**Stop wailing, kit.** Naruto felt Kurama's presence envelop his mind in a hug. **Your brother's right. You can do it.**

A throat cleared beside them. Quickly, they broke the hug and Naruto dried his tears on his gloved forearm. Kakashi was standing there, looking relaxed as can be and smelling worried and uncomfortable.

Naruto laughed wetly, "Hey Kakashi-san. Did you need something?"

He nodded, "Do you need help fixing the house?"

Before Naruto could answer, Iruka stepped forward to shake his hand. "Thank you, for protecting my otouto for years." he said.

Naruto expected Kakashi to be angry. He told Iruka he was ANBU, not what the mask was though, but Kakashi smelled of pain, not anger. **If your parents had lived, you would've been raised with Kakashi as your nii-san.**

The Jounin nodded mechanically at the Chunin but quickly looked back at the Jinchuuriki, waiting for an answer.

The blond shrugged, "We were going to the house now," he looked at Iruka to check they were on the same page and kept talking once the man nodded, "to research. I actually planned to open a mission request for it."

"No need," Kakashi gestured to someone behind him and a green blur appeared beside him, "I already did it. Meet Guy and his Genin."

"Hello Naruto-kun!" exclaimed Guy with a blinding smile and a thumbs up. _His eyebrows are less creepy than I thought. Still huge. They suit him, he's built like a brick house. _"My eternal rival employed us to help you!"

"Yosh," crowed the mini-Guy with equally impressive eyebrows but less muscles, "if we fail to complete it today, we'll do a thousand push ups."

"Lee," said the weapon enthusiast, "we were told that the mission might take several days."

"Were you even listening?" groused the Fate obsessed Hyuuga.

Guy ignored his students bickering beside him, "I'm Konoha's Sublime Green Beast of Prey, Jounin Might Guy, at your service. This is my Genin team: Rock Lee, Hyuuga Neji and Tenten."

"We already know each other," said Tenten.

"Really, my student?" asked Guy, sounding excited.

"We were classmates at one point." said the blond, "Nice meeting you all again." Naruto himself wasn't sure if he was lying or not. Truthfully, the only one he actually remembered from the Academy was Neji. No reason to point that out.

"Shall we go then?" asked Kakashi.

"Yeah, there's no time to waste," answered Naruto. He had six months until the Chunin Exams.

* * *

"I want to key you in, nii-san." Naruto grabbed Iruka's hand and pushed it against the spiral on the gate. "Come on Kakashi-san."

"What?" asked the Jounin.

"You know, like you did with me." _Is he trying to be difficult?_ Kurama_, the meanie,_ laughed at his irritation.

Kakashi's eye widened, "Right. I forgot to give you control of the wards."

**So that's how he managed to key you in.**

_Well, yeah. I was just too overwhelmed and forgot to ask him to turn control over to me._

**How did you know?**

_The seals on my apartment. I can key people in because I'm the one that turns them on and off. I'm in control. Makes sense it would be the same with these._

**Ah. Right.** Naruto mentally laughed at his Bijuu's embarrassment.

Kakashi keyed Irua to the wards and they entered, Team 9 behind them.

Guy clapped his hands, "Where do you want us to start, Naruto-kun?"

"What were the mission parameters Kakashi-san gave you?" asked Iruka.

The green clad Jounin laughed and gave a blinding smile, "We are to work on the house and garden for the next two to three days. Payment will be agreed upon depending on how many tasks Naruto-kun sets."

The Uzumaki blanched and looked at his future sensei, "What if I ask too much?"

The Jounin snickered and ruffled his hair, ignoring Naruto's hands trying to stop him from messing it up. "I can easily pay for a hundred D-ranks. Go wild."

_Go wild he says. It's not like there's that much for them to do. I think._ "Uhm," Naruto looked around the garden. "Well, start by cutting the grass and removing all the weeds and dead leaves and stuff." Naruto blushed when he saw Neji looking at him like he was an idiot. He hurried to add, "Also, clean the roof and rain gutters."

Guy smiled and gave a double thumbs up, "Understood, client-san." Naruto thought he saw him give a pointed glance at his stiff student, but he turned around too fast for him to be sure. "Let's show him our Flames of Youth!" he yelled.

"Youth!" yelled Lee.

Naruto wondered how they planned to do all of it with no tools, up until Kakashi unsealed an _entire freaking tool shed!_ in a corner of the garden.

The Jounin noticed his flabbergasted gaze, "What?" he asked innocently.

Naruto sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. _He's willing to pay for days of work and now this! _"Just show me how to get control of the wards."

It turned out that the process was pretty simple. They left Iruka in the library to start searching for information on the Chakra Chains and headed to a secret room behind a bookshelf that needed Naruto's blood to open it. Inside, stood a black obsidian stand with a blood red stone on top. The stone seemed to have a golden light swimming inside it. Kakashi cut his hand with a kunai and touched a spiral carving in the obsidian, he urged Naruto to cut his hand too and place it on the red stone.

The golden glow in the stone spread to the whole room, blinding them. Once the light returned to normal, Naruto could feel a new awareness inside him. Before, he felt the chakra from the wards like a blanket covering the whole property and messing with his chakra sensing. Now, he could clearly feel every person in his home and the bubble shaped protections that surrounded it. They felt heavy and electric, like a storm ready to be unleashed. They made him feel safer than he ever felt before… they felt like home.

They returned to the library, the passage closing behind them.

* * *

Kakashi joined the search once Naruto explained about the time limit. The blonde was disappointed to discover that the Jounin had never asked Kushina how her bloodline worked, since these things were private, so he wasn't much help. The main problem they found was that, while most scrolls on jutsus and fuinjutsu were legible, the ones they actually needed could only be read by Naruto. The sections on Clan History, Traditions and anything to do with the Clan's fighting styles were not only blood locked, but literally invisible to non-Uzumaki. _I understand their paranoia, but I really wish they were less careful._

**Just use clones kit. You'll have to provide the blood but they'll be able to read them.**

_Oh. Right. I forgot about that._

Naruto created ten clones and gave each of them a random scroll, it's not like he knew which one they needed. There was no scroll labeled HOW TO AWAKEN THE KEKKEI GENKAI or CHAKRA CHAINS FOR DUMMIES. _Sometimes, I wish things were easy._

Kakashi went outside to 'supervise' Team 9, Naruto was convinced he just wanted to catch up with his friend, while Iruka fluttered around like a worried mother hen until Naruto politely asked the Chunin if he could clean the library while he read since the dust was bothering him. It was, but it was mostly a way to give the man something useful to do.

* * *

The day passed quickly. Naruto was glad he learned to skim read like a champ in his past life. It made it easy to separate all scrolls mentioning 'chains' from those that didn't. By the time the sun started setting, Naruto and his clones had skimmed through all the blood locked scrolls, 2 full bookshelves of them. However, in the end there were only 11 and 9 books to read through the next day.

Reading that he wouldn't use the clones for, his throbbing temples were a clear indication that he had to be more careful. Too much information coming in from the clones with little time to process it could give those with no healing factor aneurysms. Still, migraine aside, Naruto felt hopeful that one of the texts would have the answer.

He determinedly ignored how most of the scrolls had just pictures and the books seemed to be on Clan history, family recipes and Uzushio's festivities. Just because there wasn't a section on just Chakra Chains didn't mean the method wasn't hidden in those pages. Worst came to worst, he would still learn more about his Clan.

At least Team 9 had finished cleaning the garden and roof. The grey stone path leading from the gate to the house was cleared of plants and mud, the flowerbeds were now empty earth and the lawn smelled of newly cut grass. The blue tiled roof was cleaned and almost black in the light of the setting sun. Naruto burst out crying once he saw the cemetery, he had expected the graves to be completely clean in a now orderly lawn. They were, but they'd gone a step further. There was a single pink carnation for remembrance planted beside each grave. Naruto hugged Tenten tightly when he found out it was her idea.

* * *

01/06/2020

So, I changed chapters 4,5 and 6 plus this one. In this one most of the changes were fixing up grammatical errors and rewording parts of the library scene.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9: Mysteries & Paranoia**

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, it belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. I'm not gaining profit from this.

This chapter isn't betaed, any mistakes are my own and English is definitely not my first language. Constructive criticism is much appreciated, flames are not.

_Naruto's thoughts_

**Emphasis**

WRITING

_Naruto talking to Kurama_

**Kurama talking to Naruto**

* * *

The next day, Naruto led Team 9, Guy, Kakashi and Iruka into the house.

"Ok," hands on his hips, Naruto looked around, thinking back to when he'd first visited with Kakashi. "I want Team 9 to clean the entire house except for the library and armoury," Naruto summoned two clones, "my clones will clean those two." The blond looked at Iruka, "Nii-san if you could please supervise them?" The Chunin nodded and the Jinchuuriki turned back to Team 9. "I want you to note down any broken or battered furniture and describe the damages in detail. I need to know what needs replacing and what can be fixed. Any questions?"

The Genins shook their heads.

"Yosh!" exclaimed Might Guy, "Do not worry Naruto-san, we'll take care of it."

Naruto nodded at the Jounin. "I'll be reading outside if you need me."

* * *

Naruto settled down in the grass beside the empty koi pond, between it and the small grove of trees that hid the Uzumaki training ground. The books and scrolls were carefully stacked around him, he didn't want to damage them.

_Kurama, why did Kushina stop living here?_

**She left close to the end of the Third War, she bought an apartment to maintain appearances, she really lived with Minato.**

_Yeah, but why did she leave?_

Kurama sighed. **Everyone died, kit. They went on missions and never came back.**

Naruto looked towards the graveyard. _All of them?!_

**I don't know. The nine Uzumaki that lived with Kushina for sure, the others died before she got here so I have no idea.**

_I really need to become Clan Head then. I won't be able to access their files in the Archives until then._

**Please do, I always found it weird, especially since less and less relatives came to the funerals. **

_Relatives?_

**There have been Uzumaki living in Konoha since Mito married that fool Hashirama. Some people married in, but a majority of the Uzumaki married into other Clans to strengthen their alliances. Some couples had kids, some didn't, but there were less and less children and grandchildren of Uzumaki coming to the funerals. And the celebrations. The dwindling numbers of participants in the Can festivities is what made Kushina so paranoid. She thought the Uzumaki were being targeted.**

_Do you agree with her?_

**Yes. Uzushio was destroyed for a reason. The other villages feared the Uzumaki, it wouldn't be surprising if they'd chosen to aim for the survivors. You have to remember, Kumo tried kidnapping your mom even before she became my Jinchuuriki.**

Naruto had forgotten that, Minato had saved her that time. _Why were we so feared?_

**Uzumaki used Fuinjutsu like others use ninjutsu, but what sealed their fate was their Chains' ability to stop the Bijuu, and the Jinchuuriki by extension.**

Naruto growled. _So it's Mito's fault for revealing that!_

**It was actually Hashirama. He bragged too much, always in the village, but information spreads fast amongst ninjas. Mito begged him to stay silent, even his arrogant brother admonished him, but that fool said he 'trusted his people' and that 'no one would say anything'. He was confident that he was strong enough to protect his wife's Clan if it came to that.**

_Maybe, but it's not like he'd live forever._

Kurama laughed. **Long term planning wasn't his forte kid. He was an idealist but his plans were rarely concrete. His brother made them a reality.**

Naruto sighed and stared at the pile of books and scrolls. _Thank you for telling me, but I should focus now._

**Good luck, kit.**

Naruto opened each scroll and skimmed through them quickly, he would start with those with lots of pictures on them since they'd be faster to read through.

* * *

"Naruto," called Iruka from the porch.

Naruto looked up from the 8th scroll distractedly. "Yeah?"

Iruka walked closer to the blond, "Kakashi-san went to get lunch. I think you should dispel the clones, you shouldn't keep them going for too long, you don't want another headache."

Naruto agreed and cut the two small links he could feel in his chakra. "Wow, nii-san, you're a slavedriver."

Iruka had the clones clean the floor of the library, wipe down the tables and chairs while he went around the room and noted down any damages. Then he had them remove all books and scrolls from a shelf so they could clean it while he wrote down the titles. When all the 8 bookshelves were empty and the floor and tables were positively covered in papers, he forced them to organize them into piles: ninjutsu, genjutsu, fuinjutsu, history… It seemed that previously, the library was just split between bloodlocked and not.

The clones and Iruka still weren't done, not with the list nor organizing everything. Naruto was happy that Iruka seemed to be having fun, but he could do without the headache of having so many titles and skimmed books crammed into his skull.

"Ouch, nii-san." he complained. "Don't work my clones too hard, remember that I'm the one that has to deal with excess of memories."

Iruka laughed, "Sorry, sorry" he ruffled the boy's hair, "You use more clones during spars."

"Yeah, but I'm fighting too, so my brain has an easier time believing I'm the one who did all of that. It's also easier if we're doing completely different things, they don't get jumbled in my head then. It gets all mixed up if we're all reading different things."

Naruto wasn't sure why that was, he could fight with his clones no problem, but read or write with them and his brain had a hard time keeping everything he learned clear. _I should really stop pushing it like yesterday and just keep one clone reading while I do something else or vice versa. I hate headaches._

**I think you should keep pushing your limits. You'll suffer no permanent damage thanks to me, and the more used to it you are, the easier it will get. Stop being a baby, your headaches never last longer than two hours.**

_For now._ Naruto groused. He sighed. _I guess you're right. I've suffered worse and I'll get hurt worse in the field._

**Exactly.** said Kurama smugly.

"Naruto?" asked Iruka. "Everything okay?"

Naruto looked up at the Chunin, "Yeah, I was just trying to organise the memories."

Iruka hummed, "Found anything useful?" he asked nodding towards the mess of papers around the blond.

Naruto sighed and shook his head, "I now know of several different fighting styles and techniques to use with the Chains, and an interesting recipe used to celebrate an Uzumaki's first Chain, but nothing useful."

"I wouldn't say that," said Iruka, "You're learning more about your origins."

Naruto nodded, "Yeah, but if I don't find out how to get my Chains I'll lose this place." He said while looking around the garden, "I feel like I'm disappointing my mom. She left this in my care and I'll lose it."

Iruka crouched down and grabbed the child's shoulder, forcing the blond to look at him, "Your mother loved you. I'm sure she's watching over you right now and that she believes in you." Iruka looked Naruto in the eyes and caressed his cheek, "I believe in you."

With a sob, Naruto threw himself into his brother's arms. "Thank you. Thank you. I promise I won't fail. I don't want to fail."

* * *

They had lunch right there in the garden, just the two of them. Iruka told stories about his childhood and the pranks he pulled.

"No. Really?" asked the little blond gleefully.

"Yes," Iruka snorted, "I dyed his hair green. You should have heard his scream." He laughed, "Hyuugas are so proud of their hair."

"What did he do to deserve that?" Naruto touched his own hair, horrified at the prospect of waking up one morning and finding it dyed. _Green at that._

"He said I'd never amount to anything," Iruka smirked, "Now I'm a Chunin and an Academy teacher and he's a paper pusher in the mission office and still a Genin."

"The best revenge really is living well." mused Naruto.

Iruka nodded, "It really is." Then he winked, "I sometimes parade around the office in my flak jacket when I know he's there just to rub it in."

"Do you like him sensei?" asked Naruto curiously.

Iruka blushed and spluttered, "Wha…?"

Naruto smirked, "Why else would you still be pissed about a comment from so long ago?"

Iruka shrugged, "He still says he's better than a clanless orphan like me sometimes. Not to my face, obviously."

_Don't the Hyuugas enslave their own family? What's so good about being in that Clan?_

**There's still a certain amount of prestige to being a Hyuuga, even a Branch member.**

Iruka suddenly stood up and patted off the grass stains on his trousers. "Well, I'll go back to work."

Naruto looked at the books he still had to go through, "Yeah, me too."

He summoned two clones and they followed Iruka inside.

Naruto picked up one of the last three scrolls at random. _I really hope I'll find something._

* * *

The last three scrolls were no help, they detailed different ways to use the Uzumaki Chakra Chains to lay seals. The first scroll explained how the Chains could be used to activate seals without touching them. Since they were made entirely of chakra, any part of a Chain could be used to set off a Fuinjutsu array. Because of that, they could also be used to draw a seal by carving it into an object, or using the chakra in them to form them with a single touch. That last one could only be achieved if a Fuinjutsu user already knew how to shape seals with only their chakra.

The last two scrolls described two similar techniques. With the first one, the Uzumaki would wrap their Chains around an enemy and shape the seals within the bindings, the author compared it to shibari (Kurama had to explain to Naruto what that was. The blond refused to ask Kurama where he learned of it, he really didn't want to know).

In the second one, instead of shaping seals around a captive, the author explained how to use the Chains to shape seals directly into the air. Both techniques could be incredibly dangerous to the user, because the chakra the Chains were made of could set off the seals at any moment, even while they were incomplete, which could result in an explosion or worse.

To ensure that the seal only activated when one wanted it to, the Uzumaki either covered the Chains in nature chakra, which can't set seals off unless they're especially designed to work with elemental chakra. Otherwise, they would start the seal by 'writing' a specific matrix that would only activate the seal once the chakra reached a certain output or with timed pulses.

Naruto was pretty excited at mastering these techniques in the future, but they really weren't helpful for his search, other than giving him something to look forward to.

The book he was reading now seemed more promising. It mentioned the Chains being traditionally 'gifted' on a child' 9th birthday, because the coils had to be 'fully grown' but not 'set' (Naruto was glad for Iruka's lessons, Original wouldn't have known what the hell that meant). It also mentioned how a year or two before their birthday, the child would be visited by a 'Guardian', and a bearer of the Uzumaki kekkei genkai, called 'Wielder'. The Guardian would memorise 'the shape of the child's chakra coils and his mind', while the Wielder would start adding small amounts of their chakra to the child's body to get them used to it and also 'teach the child's mind to recognise theirs'.

The Wielder would slowly increase the amount of chakra until the child could tolerate about a quarter of their coils being filled with foreign energy. Once the Guardian was ready, and the child could stand the Wielder's chakra and mind in theirs, the 'Revelation' would begin. The Guardian would act as an 'anchor' for the child while the Wielder would 'guide' the kid to his Chains.

Naruto had no idea what any of that meant. _Any ideas?_

**Mito had the utmost respect for those who held the position of Guardians in the Clan. I don't know why though.**

_Do you know anything about this Revelation?_

**No. **Kurama huffed. **Both Mito and Kushina had already had theirs when I was sealed in them. **He seemed to think about it for a second and then slowly said, **I do remember your mother being worried you wouldn't be able to have yours since there were no more Guardians… I think... I remember your mother studying a lot after she fell pregnant with you. She complained that becoming a Guardian was hard work.**

_Mom was a Guardian?_

Kurama sighed. **I don't know if she succeeded kit. She was a Wielder and was learning to be a Guardian, whatever that means. At least now I know why.**

Naruto thought about it for a second. _So… that means there must've been books she was learning from, since there was no one to teach her._

**If there are, they must be in this house. She never would've moved them and they can't be in Uzushio's ruins. She only returned there once, when she was thirteen, to bury the dead.**

Naruto decided to ignore the image that painted in his head. He didn't want to think about how his mom lost everything, the tears she must've cried and the desperation and loneliness that she must've felt. He didn't want to think about how his Clan was once big enough to have its own village, and now he was the only one left.

* * *

By the time Naruto returned to his apartment, he found nothing more useful than that book, the two thin ones he read after just held recipes. He still had seven books left, but the titles didn't give him much hope. Who knew though, there might be some hints.

Naruto had told Team Gai that their work was done and Kakashi had paid for 9 D-rank missions. The copy-nin had refused to tell the blond the full price when he'd asked, the Jinchuuriki felt a bit faint at how much that could be. From Iruka's flabbergasted face, it must be nothing to sneeze at.

Naruto had thanked the man and invited him to eat ramen with him and Iruka, his treat. The Jounin had refused, saying he had a short mission early the next day, but Naruto made him promise to take him up on his offer one day.

Gai had insisted on reminding Naruto that Kakashi had employed them for one more day if he needed them, but the Uzumaki had refused. The Green Beast had then enthusiastically insisted they could fill the flower beds and koi pond and help him move in new furniture and throw away the old one, but Naruto had refused saying he wasn't moving in yet.

No one had questioned it, no one except the Bijuu in his mind that was bringing it up now, just when the blond was going to sleep.

_You couldn't ask tomorrow?_

**I just find it weird that you'd rather stay in this crappy apartment than in your Clan's house.**

Naruto sighed, _I don't want to move in just to be kicked out later._

Kurama growled, **You'll never achieve anything with this defeatist attitude. You'll get your Chains, just…**

_It's not that. _Naruto sighed, staring at the ceiling, _Kurama, don't you think it's weird that the Sandaime was sure I'd lose the house?_

**What do you mean?**

_He admitted he didn't know anything about the requirements for Uzumaki kekkei genkai other than our dense chakra was necessary. How could he be sure that there was no point in stressing me out with the time limit? He seemed certain I'd fail and didn't want to give me false hopes. How? How could he be sure?_

**What are you saying kit?**

_This is the same man that lets Danzo run free, that allows a weapon to grow up miserable and still expects him to fight for Konoha. He's a pushover who blinds himself to people's faults. I think that he's so sure I'll fail because even if I do get the Chains, I'll still lose. I'm thinking there's a trap up ahead, some other requirement or obscure law I'm unaware of._

Kurama growled, **What are you going to do? We can't let him get away with it.**

Naruto felt warmed by how Kurama didn't call him paranoid. _You believe me? _A small part of him thought he was reading too much into it.

**I can see Konoha doing that. It can't hurt to check, if you're wrong nothing will happen and if you're right we can fight it.**

Naruto nodded, _I'm going to talk with Shika's dad tomorrow._

**Oh?**

Naruto smirked, _Sarutobi never said I had to keep my parentage a secret, just that he didn't tell me before because he didn't want me to spread it around._

Kurama laughed, **I'm pretty sure that's the same thing in his eyes, but this is something Kushina would do.**

Naruto smiled at his fond and disgusted tone. _I'm pretty sure Shikaku knows anyway. He is a Nara._

**True.**

* * *

Thank you to everyone who commented, followed or favorited.

Read & Review, please.


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